1. Without a doubt, the biggest upset of the early Big Ten season was when scuffling Purdue rose to the occasion and knocked off Illinois in West Lafayette this week. As NBCSports.com‘s Rob Dauster points out, the Boilermakers were able to do so by controlling Brandon Paul — with ball-screen defense, switching and the individual defense of Terone Johnson, who probably turned in the best all-around performance of his career. Illinois goes as Paul goes, but the nearly-3o-minute stretch of play during the game during which Purdue held Paul scoreless was certainly the difference-maker in this one. Will other teams in the conference be able to duplicate such an effort?
2. Iowa put up a good fight against Indiana in its conference opener earlier this week, and it was essentially all without a contribution from Devyn Marble. The junior guard missed 13 of the 14 shots he took in the game — a four-point loss for the Hawkeyes — but Scott Dochterman says it hasn’t affected Marble’s confidence moving forward. “It was frustrating, but I’m not going to let it affect my game or depict what I’m going to do next,” he said. “On the final play, as you saw, I kept shooting.” Granted, Marble has been more up than down this season, turning in a 30-point effort against Northern Iowa and a 27-point game against South Carolina State. Considering what lies ahead this season, he and the Hawkeyes will need all the confidence they can muster.
3. We know the Big Ten is the toughest conference in the country this season (see: previously-embarrassing Purdue knocking off previously-unbeaten Illinois this week), but what will it take to win the league? In previous years, the Big Ten regular season champion has finished with anywhere from two to five losses (Ohio State won it two years ago with two losses, while Michigan, Michigan State and Ohio State all tied for first last year each with five losses). USA Today‘s Eric Prisbell and Nicole Auerbach agree that five losses sounds about right for a conference champion again this season, and any team that emerges from the Big Ten with three losses is a certain national title contender. What do you think? How many losses can Big Ten teams afford to have and still have a shot at the conference championship?
4. Minnesota has just one loss this season, is ranked in the top 10, has a slew of signature victories already — including a rare win against Michigan State to open the Big Ten slate — but could the Gophers still be flying under the radar? The Star Tribune‘s Amelia Rayno reports that some national pundits (namely Jay Bilas of ESPN) believe Minnesota is still underrated. “I think the Gophers have plenty more to prove before they can be introduced to that level of respect, but right now, they’re doing all the right things,” Rayno writes in response. “There’s no need to talk about the Gophers being underrated right now. Perhaps they were at the beginning of the year, but now, they’re gaining more respect week after week.” What do you think?
5. Quick: Who is Indiana’s most valuable player? The easy answer, of course, is preseason National Player of the Year sophomore center Cody Zeller. But midway through the season, could another candidate have emerged for the Hoosiers, who remain that same title contender? ESPN‘s Andy Katz points to Victor Oladipo as somewhat of a surprise — surely, we’ve known he was important to the Hoosiers, but perhaps not this important — and calls Oladipo a “game-changer” who makes winning plays. It’s been perplexing for much of Zeller’s career that he hardly ever seems to be the go-to guy down the stretch, which is precisely a trait that Oladipo possesses.

*Editor’s Note: This version of the ATB covers games played Tuesday and Wednesday night.

Chris Johnson is an RTC Columnist. He can be reached @ChrisDJohnsonn. 

Tonight’s Lede. New Year Means New Opportunity.The first day of every new year is dominated by upper-tier college football bowl games. It is a timeless tradition that leaves little room for meaningful basketball. A few games tipped off in the January 1 twilight, and one was about as controversial as they come, but it wasn’t until Wednesday night that a full slate cropped up to lead us out of the Holidays with a hearty portion of hoops consumption. With the calendar flipped, there’s vast opportunity for teams to set new upward or downward trends. Some will wilt under the pressure of conference play. Others will amp up their efforts and springboard into prominent national standing. Nonconference play was just the beginning. Here’s where the Darwinian forces of college basketball weed out the weak links and where the strongest, fittest, most-balanced outfits emerge for the long haul. The NCAA Tournament remains a distant endpoint, but from here on out, the opportunities for improvement grow leaner as the calendar nears March. In the new year, margin for error is minimal. That’s what makes conference play so critical.

Your Watercooler Moment. Officiating Blunder Mars Big East Thriller.

A refereeing blunder dominated the post-game discussion from a hard-fought Big East contest (Photo credit: AP Photo).

The complex sequence of events that denied UConn a basket at the beginning of overtime in the Huskies’ 82-76 loss at Marquette is complex and long-winded. I’m still trying to figure out exactly where the officials went wrong. From what I can glean, it boils down to this: UConn was robbed two points for the referees’ failure to reorient each team to the proper scoring goal following erroneous tipoff positioning; players lined up facing the wrong direction at the tip, and officials botched a potential goaltending call, in which UConn should have been awarded two-points. The Huskies had plenty of opportunity to make up for whatever the officials may or may not have unfairly revoked, but when you lose a valuable possession at the beginning of overtime, it’s a devastating blow not only for momentum purposes. It effectively negates one of a finite number of possessions in a crucial timeframe where every trip down the floor can swing the final outcome. The game was not lost because officials have some unspoken personal vendetta with UConn’s basketball program, or because it fell victim to the Golden Eagles’ home court influence. Referees make mistakes. This one happened so late in the game, and in such mystifying fashion, that it inevitably draws the brunt of the blame for UConn’s defeat. I’m not minimizing the effect of the referees’ blunder – to reiterate: mistakes hurt, especially in overtime. I’m merely emphasizing the downside of a third-party blip looming over what was a truly entertaining Big East battle between two solid teams.

Your Quick Hits…

• Another Boeheim Milestone. Historical benchmarks have defined Syracuse’s season as much as anything else, and Jim Boeheim made another step in the all-time wins pantheon Wednesday night by securing his 903^rd W to pass Bob Knight and move into 2^nd place behind Mike Krzyzewski. Buckets of praise, and an almost near-equal amount of pushback, erupted following Boeheim’s passing into the vaunted 900 realm a few weeks back, so it’s best we not revisit the coach’s career achievements. Boeheim’s career is a curious test case on the valuation of wins vs. postseason accomplishment. Perseverance and longevity in the coaching profession is Boeheim’s defining trait – 903 wins, no matter the rate of accumulation, requires an eternity of year-long dedication and grinding commitment. The controversy stems from Boeheim’s thin postseason credentials relative to career length. With just one national championship and three Final Fours to his name over 37 years of sideline time, where does Boeheim rank in the pecking order of coaching legends? I don’t know, and neither do you – not until he finally decides to call it quits.

• Read the rest of this entry »

We are six weeks into our Pac-12 Pick’Em and Adam continues to edge out the rest of us. And now that we are completely done with non-conference play, the amount of available points will drop significantly. Last week was rough on all of us, thanks to teams like Oregon State and California choking away what we thought were sure wins. Drew was the only one to gain any ground, as he was the only one to correctly pick New Mexico’s road upset of Cincinnati. In our other game of the week, Missouri-UCLA, I came the closest to correctly picking the Bruin win. While everyone else picked the Tigers to win by 12 or 16, I had the game going down to the wire with UM pulling out a five-point win. So now, we enter week six. Colorado’s visit to Arizona and Ohio State’s meeting with Illinois headline the list as our games of the week.

The biggest differences in opinion this week come in Colorado’s visit to Arizona State. Parker and I pick the road-weary Buffaloes to escape Tempe with the victory, while Drew and Adam took the Sun Devils. Save myslef, everyone else matches on the remainder of the picks. I took Illinois in our national game of the week and Oregon State for a Civil War victory, opting for home-court advantage, something that can be pivotal in conference play.

Apologies that we are a bit tardy in rolling out our Top 25; with the holidays behind us and the New Year officially upon us, we plan on hitting 2013 running. A fairly light week of hoops resulted in little movement in the RTC25. Duke remains #1 for the sixth straight week, Minnesota cracks the Top 10 for the first time, and NC State jumps back into the poll after making a departure for several weeks. In perhaps the most exciting game of the week, Gonzaga shot back up to #10 after a big road win in Stillwater against Oklahoma State. The Quick n’ Dirty after the jump.

Quick n’ Dirty Analysis.

• Read the rest of this entry »

Chris Johnson is an RTC Columnist. He can be reached @ChrisDJohnsonn. 

The Weekend’s Lede. Commonwealth Rivalry Lives Up. It doesn’t get any bigger than Louisville-Kentucky. There are little rivalries that make for great shows of organic competitiveness and bitterness, but they have nothing on what took place Saturday at the KFC Yum! Center. Each year, no matter the disparities in talent or experience, these teams come to play in this rivalry game. The emotional baggage makes the Commonwealth clash an event in itself. When you get two Top 25 sides trading jabs, two coaches with well-established personal gripes – one of whom has navigated the delicate balance of a blue-to-red partisan conversion – there’s added drama to throw on top of the natural hatred. One side (Louisville) entered with more talent, experience and depth, but as is the case in most rivalry games, the final outcome was decided based on who could execute better in crunch time (and who could convert from the free throw line). Whatever your allegiance, or if your viewing interest was of the impartial variety, it’s hard to begrudge the sheer quality and entertainment factor of Saturday’s contest. Louisville-Kentucky was the massive event overshadowing the rest of the weekend, but there were a few other interesting games on tap. Time to wrap up the final weekend of non-conference play.

Your Watercooler Moment. Harrow Doesn’t Break Under Pressure.

Considering he was facing the most relentless ball-pressuring backcourt in the country, Harrow managed the big stage with unexpected poise (photo credit: Getty Images).

The biggest question mark looming over Kentucky’s slow start was the comfort and progression of point guard Ryan Harrow. No one ever said he was going to be Derrick Rose, or even Marquis Teague – the Calipari point guard dynasty is a tough standard to maintain – Harrow simply needs to operate at a level that allows the Wildcats to maximize the talents of Kyle Wiltjer, Alex Poythress and Archie Goodwin on the perimeter, and enable Nerlens Noel to capitalize on easy lobs and putbacks. Even that seemed like a pipe dream for Harrow following a mysterious four-game absence in November. He’s made huge strides over the past three weeks, and had his best game (23 points on 10-of-17 shooting) just over a week ago in an 82-54 win over Marshall. That was a small step. In Louisville, Harrow was walking into one of the best defensive backcourts statistically-speaking in NCAA history (its 80.0 adjusted defensive efficiency entering Saturday’s game ranks among the best marks in Ken Pomeroy’s database, dating back to 2003), and few believed he was ready to handle the type of pressure Russ Smith and Peyton Siva were going to throw at him. Harrow jumped into the biggest spotlight of his career and performed like a point guard of Calipari’s recent vintage. Not only did Harrow score 17 points and help spearhead a furious second-half rally, but he committed zero turnovers, found ways to ward off the active hands and smothering pressure of Siva and Smith, and commanded Kentucky’s offense with aplomb. The scoreboard reflects a Kentucky loss, a short-term disappointment. In the long term, if Harrow’s performance is a barometer for his development and maturation in Calipari’s system, Saturday was a huge win. With a capable point guard puppeteering the offense, the future is bright for Kentucky.

Also Worth Chatting About. Don’t Count Out UNC Yet.

The Tar Heels Looked locked-in defensively against the talented Rebels (photo credit: Getty Images).

If any team needed a statement win heading into conference play, it was North Carolina. Besides a puzzling loss at Texas (and even that, given the Longhorns’ defensive chops, is not a fatal misstep) The Tar Heels hadn’t exactly dropped the ball in non-conference play – they lost to two very good teams from the state of Indiana, one an offensive juggernaut (IU) and one a vaunted perfectionist (Butler) in the art of sizing up and beating down more talented opponents – but they hadn’t exactly looked like the ACC front-runner many expected them to be. The visiting UNLV Rebels offered a prime opportunity to hold court against a top-20-level outfit, and build some serious momentum for ACC play in the process. UNC’s stifling defense and balanced scoring overwhelmed the Rebels, who suffered a brutal five-minute field goal-less streak in the second half and received an uncharacteristically inefficient showing from freshman wunderkind Anthony Bennett (15 points on 6-of-16 shooting). Neither team was at full strength – Mike Moser played just 12 minutes in his return from an elbow injury, and Reggie Bullock was scratched with a concussion – but UNC seized its last big chance to make a splash before ACC play. And with a brutal six-game stretch featuring games against Virginia, Miami, Florida State, Maryland and NC State up next, the Tar Heels needed a momentum boost in the biggest way. The proud fans in Chapel Hill can breathe, for now, and feel better about this season not mimicking a 2009-10 campaign that saw the Tar Heels follow up the Hansborough-Lawson-Green-Ellington supergroup with an NIT appearance.

Your Quick Hits….

• Santa Clara Tests Duke. It is a fundamental truism of the 2012-13 college hoops season that Gonzaga will win the West Coast Conference. In fact, I’m willing to go ahead and bet the Zags will have created enough distance from other challengers by February 1 to have rendered the word “race” completely and utterly moot. The rest of the league is far less certain. St. Mary’s is the logical favorite to claim the No. 2 spot. Loyola Marymount is always a tough out. And you can never discount BYU and the daunting road trip that is Provo, Utah. Time to insert a new name in the conversation: Santa Clara. The Broncos went into Cameron Indoor Saturday night and put a scare into the No. 1 Blue Devils, their upset bid powered by 29 points from senior guard Kevin Foster. That’s the kind of confidence-building performance that pays dividends in conference play, when you can rest assured Santa Clara will ride into any road environment exuding confidence and poise.
• Ollie Gets First Win With New Job Title. Hours before Cincinnati’s Saturday night tipoff with visiting Washington, ESPN’s Andy Katz reported UConn had signed Kevin Ollie to a five-year contract extension, thus eliminating the interim tag and granting the long-term security most believed Ollie had earned after leading the Huskies to a 9-2 start and creating a smooth transitory bridge from Jim Calhoun’s fiery coaching style to a new era of UConn basketball. Losing your first game after receiving a big financial commitment from AD Warde Manuel would have been a bad look. The Huskies’ talented backcourt trio of Shabazz Napier, Omar Calhoun and Ryan Boatwright ensured their new coach had a win to back up his new job title, with each posting double-figure scoring totals in an eight-point victory over Washington. UConn may not have postseason motivations on its side, but what it does have, thanks to Saturday’s extension, is a huge incentive to help lay the foundation for Ollie’s tenure and a return to national relevance. Read the rest of this entry »

This is the eighth installment of our weekly Big Ten Power Rankings which we will publish each Friday. This week’s voters were Deepak Jayanti, Joey Nowak and Kevin Trahan of the Big Ten Microsite.

John Beilein’s Wolverines are the best team in the B1G heading into the conference season.(AnnArbor.com/Lon Horwedel)

1. #2 Michigan – The Wolverines took care of business in the non-conference season and head into the Big Ten slate in good position, ranking No. 2 in the country. The Michigan freshmen needed hardly any time to grow accustomed to the college game, and the backcourt — particularly Trey Burke and Tim Hardaway Jr. — is widely regarded as the best in the nation. There are still concerns about the frontcourt, however. Can Jordan Morgan improve his production in conference play this year? Can Glenn Robinson III and Mitch McGary continue their impressive starts with tougher teams looming? That remains to be seen, but the Wolverines certainly have the pieces in place for a special year. (Last week: No. 1)
2. #5 Indiana – Indiana still plays Jacksonville Friday night before Big Ten play begins, but assuming no slip-up there, they’ll head into conference play with just one loss. The Hoosiers certainly have enough weapons to win a national title, but their failure to get their top weapons in the game for the full 40 minutes — like the failure to fully utilize Cody Zeller against Butler — could hurt them at some point. They’ll get a stern test to begin conference play as they head to Iowa City to take on an upstart Iowa team that could pose problems due to its depth. That game will be a good barometer to see just how much Indiana has improved since the Butler loss. (Last week: No. 2)
3. #12 Minnesota – The Gophers make the big leap in this week’s power rankings because Ohio State and Illinois lost over the weekend. Tubby Smith’s crew has one loss to the top ranked team in the country (Duke) and has been very impressive in every other game. When you beat formidable opponents such as Memphis and Florida State but only lose to the best team in America, you’ve had a great non-conference season. But the Gophers can’t rest easy because they have a great opportunity to knock off a very good Michigan State squad at home on New Year’s Eve. At this point, the Gophers are a legitimate contender to win the Big Ten if they take care of business in Minneapolis. (Last week: No. 5)
4. #11 Ohio State – We dropped the Buckeyes because they lost to Kansas and they may have trouble in the conference season if they can’t find a consistent second scoring option. Aaron Craft (8.9 PPG) impacts the game in other ways than just scoring, but one of Shannon Scott (7.2 PPG) or Laquinton Ross (9.1 PPG) needs to  step into that scoring role for Thad Matta. The first three games of their B1G schedule are winnable games – Nebraska, Purdue and Illinois – if the Buckeyes can manage to put up 60 points on the board. (Last week: No. 3) Read the rest of this entry »

1. No doubt it has been a frustrating season for Purdue and the Boilermaker fans, but the first step to fixing a problem is deciphering what has gone wrong. Jeff Washburn of the Lafayette Journal and Courier believes the Boilermakers know what the issues are, and the problems are rooted in the offense. Purdue misses players like Lewis Jackson and Robbie Hummel, who could orchestrate plays and take control of the offense in key stretches, but this year’s team simply does not shoot well from anywhere — the free throw line, the three-point line, or the field, in general. Everything from turnovers to senior leadership has a void, and it leaves Washburn wondering if Purdue can even find its way to an overall .500 record this season.
2. Whether things are good or bad, Wisconsin coach Bo Ryan has a pretty strong poker face. And when things have not been going well at times this season — the Badgers have had a few tough losses and have been dealing with some injury setbacks all year — he has remained stoic. Now that the Big Ten season is here, the Badgers are hoping that his demeanor can help keep them calm as they head into the gauntlet. “It’s been done before,” senior forward Jared Berggren said of turning things around in January. “We’re by no means writing ourselves out of it this early in the season. There’s a lot of basketball left to play and Coach Ryan has proven that he knows how to get the job done as long as we listen and start applying it on the court a little better and more consistently.”
3. Deverell Biggs, who is sitting out this season at Nebraska as a redshirt junior, was cited for drunken driving and leaving the scene of an accident in Omaha last Sunday. Biggs reportedly had a blood-alcohol content level of .134 after the 20-year-old backed his car into another vehicle after Biggs remained stopped at a red light. According to the Omaha World-Herald, Biggs talked to the man momentarily but drove away before the two could exchange information. He was later tracked down by the police and the rest is history. It is a black eye for him and the program after he became the first in-state player to sign with Nebraska in 11 years, transferring in from Seward County (Kansas) Community College, where he was a first-team All-American.
4. When it came to hiring a new head coach, Illinois did not make headlines for its search. It is well known that several other candidates — Brad Stevens and Shaka Smart, namely — turned down the offer once the Fighting Illini parted ways with Bruce Weber. And when John Groce was hired away from Ohio, many were skeptical that his track record would translate to success in recruiting the greater Chicago area while competing in the Big Ten. Well, the Illini have certainly been in the headlines this year for their early showing. So far, at least, Groce has turned out to be a great hire — and the Chicago Tribune recognize that fact as one of the best sports decisions of the year for the area.
5. Dunk you very much to the Big Ten Network for putting together this compilation of the conference’s best high-flying slam dunks of the non-conference season heading into Big Ten playaround the New Year. The league has some of the best athletes in the country — Branden Dawson and Adreian Payne at Michigan State, Victor Oladipo at Indiana, Rodney Williams at Minnesota, and Sam Thompson of Ohio State come to mind — and they are all showcased here. Which ones are your favorites?

Chris Johnson is an RTC columnist. He can be reached @ChrisDJohnsonn. 

The Weekend’s Lede. The Holidays Are Here. The Holiday season closes the curtain on the nonconference portion of the college basketball season. At the turn of the New Year, most teams will have played their final out of league games. Some will have commenced conference play. Between now and January 1, players and coaches will enjoy breaks of various duration, but every team will set aside part of its hectic five-month schedule for some family bonding and holiday cheer. We will miss the hardwood action that made our weeknights bearable and our weekends excitable. Not to worry: the end of the winter festivities brings a new chapter of the season. Conference play is a significant turning point, a temporal marker, but most of all, it heralds a new level of competitiveness and intensity. Why am I talking about this so far in advance? Well, why not? League play is much more fun than the low-cut mix of competition observed in November and December. It’s non-stop high-stakes competition. Anyway, endure the next few hoop-less days as joyfully as possible and take your favorite teams’ scheduling gap as a cue to follow suit and spend time with those closest to you. In short, enjoy the Holiday Season! I’ll be back with more nightly recaps before you know it.

Your Watercooler Moment. An Ode To One Of College Hoops’ Great Lost Rivalries. 

Kansas vs. Ohio State Was Great, But It’s No Border War

Arguably the biggest realignment-related hoops casualty was the Border War, a decades-old feud between Missouri and Kansas played with venomous spite, healthy antagonism and competitive fire unlike any other game in the sport. Last year’s renditions were nothing short of excellent, with the Tigers taking the first meeting and the Jayhawks exacting revenge three weeks later. Losing that game is a huge blow to the sport’s traditional appeal, and make no mistake, it would have hurt at any point in the rivalry’s historical progression. That it finally came to expire this season, when both teams feature national contending outfits, is doubly painful. Saturday gave us yet another reason to lament the loss of the old Big 12 rivalry. Both Kansas and Missouri knocked off top-10 opponents (Missouri beat Illinois; Kansas beat Ohio State), each stating its claim for conference superiority. With Florida falling to Kansas State, and Kansas looking far and away like the class of the Big 12, it is no huge stretch to crown Missouri and Kansas temporary lordship of their respective leagues. Kansas’ grip on the Big 12 probably has more staying power, if only because the top of the Big 12 has yet to produce an equal competitor. The SEC, meanwhile, has two teams – Florida and Kentucky – who, provided they round into form over the course of conference play, may well test Missouri’s top-dog stature. Plus, Kansas is Kansas. Conference championships are nothing new for the Jayhawks. This is foreign territory for the Tigers; not only because it’s their first year in a new league. It’s also the first time in years where they’ve truly separated themselves amongst from other conference challengers – aside from Florida, no one’s touching the Tigers; at least not now – and certainly the first time they’ve done as much under second-year coach Frank Haith. 

Weekend Quick Hits…

• Temple Gets Quality Nonleague Result It Needed. Two weeks ago, Temple took on Duke at the IZOD center. The Blue Devils destroyed Fran Dunphy’s team. But, hey, that was Duke, the undisputed king of November and December. When the Owls lost to Temple, all bets were off. This team had major issues to sort out. Which is why Saturday’s upset of No. 3 Syracuse, previous owners of a 52-game nonconference winning streak, was so very unexpected. Temple cracked open the unrelenting puzzle that is Jim Boeheim’s trademark 2-3 zone, primarily thanks to Khalif Wyatt’s 33 points and Anthony Lee’s 21, both career-highs. Butler and VCU have proven themselves more than capable of handling the jump to a more prominent league. In fact, one can make the argument that Stevens and Smart’s squads have been the A-10’s most impressive squads to date. Temple proved Saturday it won’t cede conference bragging rights to the newcomers without putting up a real fight.
• Excellent Championship Showdown In Diamond Head Classic. The bulk of specialized exempted Tournament had come and gone during the first few months of the season. The Diamond Head Classic is An annual rite of Christmas Cheer, held in late December each and every year. After Arizona\’s Monday morning romp over Miami — whom many had crowned the ACC\’s second best team after recent wins over Michigan State, Charlotte, UCF and UMass — an excellent championship tilt between the Wildcats and San Diego State (who topped Indiana State en route to the final) has come into clear view. Want some high-quality hoop to light up your Christmas Night?  Tuesday\’s Final can\’t come soon enough. Read the rest of this entry »

Danny Spewak is an RTC Correspondent. He filed this report from the Scottrade Center following Missouri’s 82-73 victory over Illinois Saturday night. You can follow him on Twitter @dspewak.

It was an unfamiliar sight. The big, bad Missouri Tigers ferociously attacked the offensive glass on Saturday, flying over Illinois at every opportunity and bullying the Fighting Illini with their size and strength. Phil Pressey, who missed his first 15 shots from the field, could have missed 100 shots for all he cared. Every time Pressey clanked another floater off the rim, Alex Oriakhi was there to clean up the mess. By the end of Missouri’s 82-73 Braggin’ Rights victory at the Scottrade Center, he’d tallied 14 rebounds — seven on the offensive end – and cemented himself as the face of the Tigers’ new identity.“Alex is just a monster on the glass. We see that every day in practice. We call it eating,” senior forward Laurence Bowers said. “That’s how Alex eats.” His diet is starting to rub off on his teammates. Bowers grabbed 10 rebounds, too, and scored a game-high 23 points in a contest that featured a near-brawl in the first half during a tie-up. In fact, the game teetered on the brink of an all-out brawl for 40 minutes. The officiating crew rarely blew the whistle. As the second half wore on, Oriakhi and the Tigers clamped up defensively, out-rebounded the Illini by 22 and powered their way to a fourth straight victory in the Braggin’ Rights series.

Missouri Showed Some Real Toughness Saturday Night (Rich Sugg/Kansas City Star)

Notice the key word here: “powered.” In every way, the Tigers flashed their new identity as a tough, in-your-face squad who will fight you for loose balls and make you miserable on the offensive glass. That’s an absurd and fairly unbelievable identity for this program, considering the team has seemed to perpetually lack size for several years. When MU hired Mike Anderson in 2006, he implemented a style of play tailored toward speed, quickness and guard play. He recruited tough kids who could guard, and he recruited forwards who could run the floor, but he never recruited a traditional big man. For five seasons, Missouri compensated for an inability to rebound by forcing turnovers and scoring in transition. Sometimes, it worked, like during a run to the Elite Eight in 2009. Other times, though, it left Missouri fans shaking their heads when opponents would manhandle the Tigers on the boards and in the paint. When Anderson left for Arkansas, he left Frank Haith with a terrific set of guards, which he coached to 30 wins using a four-guard attack. They were fun. They were gunners. They won by outscoring you. But Kyle O’Quinn and Norfolk State eventually exposed the guard-heavy attack in the NCAA Tournament.

Read the rest of this entry »

Who Won the Week? is a regular column that will outline and discuss three winners and losers from the previous week. The author of this column is Kenny Ocker (@KennyOcker), an Oregon-based sportswriter best known for his willingness to drive (or bike!) anywhere to watch a basketball game.

WINNER: Duke

Mason Plumlee has led Duke in rebounding 10 times in 11 games as the Blue Devils are 11-0 while ranked third in strength of schedule. (AP Photo)

The week couldn’t have gone much more perfectly for the Blue Devils than it did. Achieve top ranking? Check. Land a top recruit? Check. Win both games handily? Check and check. Yes, Duke should probably send some flowers to Butler for knocking off preseason favorite Indiana, but who would have looked at the two teams before Saturday and thought the Hoosiers were better? Outside of the state of Indiana, I’m guessing few would. The Blue Devils (11-0) have the nation’s best body of work, and have dominated it in such a fashion that they look to be the nation’s top team convincingly, and this is before prized prospect Jabari Parker picked Mike Krzyzewski’s squad over Michigan State and BYU. On the court, Mason Plumlee, who has led Duke in rebounding 10 times so far, carried his team to an 88-47 win over Cornell with 18 points and nine rebounds Wednesday and followed that up the next night with 21 points and 15 boards in a 76-54 win over Elon. And as an added bonus, the youngest Plumlee, freshman Marshall, already made a brief return to the court against Cornell coming back from a foot injury.

(Related winners: Mason Plumlee, Butler. Related losers: Indiana, Michigan State, BYU, Cornell, Elon, and especially North Carolina – more to come.)

LOSER: Eastern Kentucky

The Ohio Valley’s Colonels started their season off hot, winning nine straight games before a weekend matchup at also-undefeated Illinois. The major-conference team expectedly pulled Eastern Kentucky apart, winning 66-53, but it was what happened next that wrapped up a bad week in Richmond, Ky. On a rare road trip to a MEAC school, the Colonels were tripped up by North Carolina A&T, who pounded the ball inside while shooting 55 percent from the field and stifling Eastern Kentucky’s guard-oriented offense by holding it to 40 percent shooting. The Bulldogs also nearly doubled up the Colonels on the glass, sealing the game. So much for a hot start.

(Related winners: North Carolina A&T, the 457 Bulldogs fans who watched the game in person. Related losers: Murray State and the Ohio Valley Conference, which both need every break they can get come March.)

Read the rest of this entry »