Brian Goodman is an RTC editor. He filed this report from the Hy-Vee Wildcat Classic in Kansas City, where Kansas State held off Florida for an important non-conference win.

Five Key Takeaways.

• Kansas State Scores Crucial Non-Conference Win: Nabbing an important non-conference victory on Saturday was important for Kansas State, which came up short against Michigan and Gonzaga earlier this season. As time passed, Saturday’s game became even more crucial for the Wildcats’ Tournament resume as the Big 12 has revealed itself to be lacking in marquee competition beyond the top tier. Though the calendar hasn’t yet turned to 2013, Kansas State head coach Bruce Weber acknowledged the dwindling number of opportunities his team had as a significant part of his team’s preparation. Saturday’s outcome may be for naught if the Wildcats struggle in league play as the team continues to embrace Weber’s system and evolve, but credit is due to Kansas State in the moment for capitalizing on the opportunity and realizing the impact tonight’s game could have come Selection Sunday.

K-State Got a Huge Win Over Florida Tonight

• Wildcats, Led By Henriquez, Dominate On Defense: The main discussion point entering Saturday’s game was how Kansas State’s stout defense would fare against the versatile, potent Florida attack. The Wildcats’ muscle turned out to be the difference in KSU’s victory, with forward Jordan Henriquez swatting five shots and altering several others in 18 terrific minutes off the bench. Rodney McGruder and Will Spradling hassled the Gators’ three-point shooters into a season-worst 26.3% performance beyond the arc, accentuated by Mike Rosario and Kenny Boynton’s combined 1-of-9 mark from deep. The Gators clawed back from a double-digit halftime deficit, but made just two shots over an eight-minute stretch, buying time for Kansas State to climb ahead for good. Patric Young’s double-double (19 points and 10 rebounds) may look good on a stat sheet, but it would be remiss to not acknowledge that a handful of Young’s points came after the game had been decided and Kansas State focused its defensive effort on the perimeter to prevent a late comeback. Read the rest of this entry »

Brendon Mulvihill is the head curator for @SportsGawker and an RTC contributor. You can find him @TheMulv on Twitter. See bottom of the post for the Official RTC Star System.

A top ten battle with a bit of recent history leads a solid slate of games this weekend. We are down to the last few non-conference games before we go full tilt into the conference season starting in the new year. It is going to be interesting to see who starts to separate from the pack as we head towards March. Let’s get to the breakdowns.

Game of the Weekend

#8 Kansas at #7 Ohio State– 4:00 PM EST, Saturday on CBS (*****)

How will Ohio State deal with Jeff Withey? (AP)

• Kansas beat Ohio State twice last season.  Once in the regular season in Lawrence and once in the Final Four. Both teams are without their main contributors from last season in Jared Sullinger for OSU and Thomas Robinson for KU. The key for Kansas in both wins was field goal defense. They held OSU to under 40% shooting in both outings. The Jayhawks come into this game with another solid defense led by center Jeff Withey. Withey provides an inside presence that the Buckeyes will need to game plan around. They had trouble with Duke\’s Mason Plumlee in last month\’s loss to the Blue Devils. Plumlee put up 21 points and 17 rebounds against a Buckeye team that is a bit thin on the inside. While Withey\’s offensive skills may not be as refined as Plumlee\’s, he is capable of putting up 20+ points and will certainly be a major factor on defense. Additionally, pay close attention to the KU guards. Travis Releford, Ben McClemore, and Elijah Johnson are big guards. Look to see if they can take advantage of their size.
• Ohio State has only lost two non-conference home games since Thad Matta got to Columbus in 2005. They lost in 2008 to North Carolina and in 2009 to West Virginia. While OSU is struggling a bit to find a legit second and third scoring threat, it’s hard to argue against a record like that at home. I learned that when Notre Dame beat Kentucky earlier this season. Still though, DeShaun Thomas is going to need help on the offensive end if Thad Matta and company are to keep that home record intact. Watch Aaron Craft, as he will be the X factor for the Buckeyes. He is averaging just under 10 points a game thus far but is capable of more. Watch the match-up between Craft and Johnson for Kansas. Johnson is turning the ball over frequently (25%) and Craft is one of the best ball thieves in the business. If he can create turnover and get the Buckeyes out on the run, OSU will be in good shape.
• It’s tough to argue against Ohio State’s home record and they are still a very talented team, but I think Withey and the big guards make the difference in this contest. Look for Withey to shut down any second chance opportunities and defend the hoop against a slashing Thomas. Plus Kansas has this to inspire them.

More Great Action

#14 Missouri vs. #10 Illinois – 6:00 PM EST, Saturday on ESPN2 (****)

• Illinois’ win at Gonzaga may be the best win of the year thus far, along side Butler’s OT victory against Indiana. As it turns out, Illinois beat Butler as well, so it’s time to take John Groce’s team seriously. The guard match-ups should be excellent in this game. The keys for Missouri will be creating turnovers and getting offensive rebounds. The Tigers aren’t turning teams over like they have in the past but the addition of Alex Oriakhi has helped the rebounding situation tremendously. Mizzou ranks 7th in the nation in offensive rebounding percentage. The Tigers will still have to contain Illinois’ Brandon Paul, however. If he gets loose like he did against Gonzaga, it will be another nice win for the Illini.

Read the rest of this entry »

1. Yesterday I talked about the success Oklahoma had in Saturday’s win over Texas A&M when the Sooners went on a important 8-0 second half run using a four-guard lineup. Well, they probably could have used some of that last night. The Sooners fell to Stephen F. Austin by a score of 56-55, making this OU’s first non-conference loss in Norman since 2007 (coincidentally enough to these same Lumberjacks). OU led 30-26 at halftime but SFA came out on a 19-4 run to start the second half and led by as many as 11 points. The Sooners then countered with an 18-6 spurt to take a brief 52-51 lead, but OU’s Buddy Hield had a chance to possibly force overtime with four seconds left but obviously he didn’t. I don’t think we’ll see a whole lot of OU-SFA games again in the future.
2. The struggles of Rodney McGruder in Bruce Weber’s brand-new motion offense are well documented, which makes last night’s performance against Texas Southern all the more encouraging. K-State won the game but McGruder lit up the Tigers for 26 points on 12-of-17 shooting. If the Cats want to do anything in March, much less Big 12 play, the senior McGruder needs to be at the top of his game this season. One fun note from this game: Former Oklahoma State and current Texas Southern guard Ray Penn made the most of his return to a Big 12 arena, pouring in 24 points and dishing out five assists in the defeat.
3. If you’re a fan of Big 12 basketball as a whole, there hasn’t been much to stick your chest out about this year. But I found something to be proud of: all the über-talented freshmen. CBSSports.com ranked the top five freshmen in college basketball and two of them hail from the Big 12. Oklahoma State’s Marcus Smart has arguably become the most versatile freshman point guard in the country, or maybe just point guard, period, in America by putting together averages of 13 points, seven rebounds, five assists and two steals per contest. The newbie on this week’s list at number three is Ben McLemore from Kansas. The St. Louis native has had an impressive three game stretch against Oregon State, Colorado and Belmont by averaging 20.7 points per game which includes 9-of-15 shooting from behind the arc. Freshmen — this is our silver lining.
4. “I don’t know about my teammates but I play at the level of the competition.” That quote is the last thing you want to hear if you’re a coach or fan but it comes from Oklahoma State’s LeBryan Nash. If I may play Devil’s Advocate, can you blame him? The Cowboys are 8-1, with quality wins, a Top 25 ranking, and talent everywhere. But if there’s a time to not slack off, it’s now. They have UT-Arlington and Tennessee Tech on the schedule before playing Gonzaga on New Year’s Eve prior to Big 12 play. Nash said that he wants to change his attitude of playing down to teams, though. The first step in dealing with a problem is acknowledging that there is one to begin with. Now prove it.
5. Here’s a weekly favorite of mine — and it should be yours too. Gary Parrish’s Poll Attacks spotlights the horrible mistakes writers and coaches make on their Top 25 ballots. This week, there’s some confusion as to why a certain Big 12 team received two votes from coaches that didn’t even deserve one. If there’s just one vote, it probably looks like a mistake. But a second vote makes you think otherwise.

1. The Big 12 announced the weekly winners for Big 12 player and rookie of the week. POTW honors went to Iowa State’s Melvin Ejim. Though he only played one game last week, Ejim filled up the stat sheet against Drake with 21 points, 11 rebounds, four assists and four steals in 31 minutes. It was Ejim’s 11th career double-double and he has already registered four of them on the young season. This week’s ROTW is now a repeat winner. Baylor freshman Isaiah Austin won the award with his dominant performance in the Bears’ 85-68 win over Lamar on December 12. All the seven-footer did was put up season highs in points (23) and rebounds (17) against a helpless Cardinals’ front line. I have a feeling Austin will win another ROTW honor before season’s end.
2. Back on March 2, Chris Lowery was fired as head coach at Southern Illinois, and just seven days later, his former boss Bruce Weber was fired at Illinois. So when Weber landed feet first in Manhattan, Kansas, during the offseason, Lowery was on the short list of possible assistants to call. Even though the season is young, I’ll go ahead and call this a home run hire. In his first three seasons at SIU, Weber had just one NIT appearance but once Lowery came on staff in 2001, the Salukis made the NCAA Tournament twice including a run to the Sweet Sixteen. He even joined Weber at Illinois for a year to help guide another Sweet Sixteen team. Now if only he and Weber could sign a lifetime deal at K-State…
3. Burnt Orange Nation gives us a recap of the first month of basketball for Big 12 teams. I can’t remember a season when the Big 12 has had so many teams show signs of incompetence. West Virginia was supposed to succeed the role of Missouri with a solid history and recent success, yet they find themselves at 4-5. Texas‘ crop of talented young guys can’t put the ball in the hoop; Baylor has been a vulnerable team at home; and then a collection of teams (Oklahoma, Iowa State and Kansas State) have solid records but haven’t been able to get wins against significant opponents yet. Hopefully, next month’s recap will be more flattering for the Big 12.
4. We know Oklahoma’s Lon Kruger is into trying new things, seeing how he changes jobs every five years (I kid) but Saturday’s win over Texas A&M saw Kruger add what The Norman Transcript calls a “new wrinkle” to another possible lineup. The Sooners went with a four-guard set with 6’6″ forward Cameron Clark at the center position for a large part of the second half. Clark went on to score 12 of his 17 points in that half and, while his team searches for an identity, Kruger left the door open for the Sooners to experiment with that lineup in the future.
5. To borrow a line from Houston Rockets radio voice Craig Ackerman, Baylor very nearly pooped their big boy pants again last night to USC Upstate but rebounded in the second half to beat the Spartans 73-57. Cory Jefferson ruled the paint going 6-of-8 from the field for 17 points to lead all scorers. Fresh off his second ROTW award, Isaiah Austin recorded his second consecutive double-double (12 points, 10 boards) while the best all-around game went to A.J. Walton who threw in 10 points, four rebounds, eight dimes and five steals. It’s another tally in the win column for Scott Drew, but the uneasy feeling about the Bears playing at the Ferrell Center isn’t going away just yet.

1. Kansas whipped another non-conference opponent at home Saturday, beating Belmont 89-60. While the Jayhawks’ top three scorers in Ben McLemore (17 points), Travis Releford (17) and Jeff Withey (14) all got theirs, it was seldom-used guard Andrew White III who made the most of his playing time. White III hit a trio of three-pointers, six shots total, and scored 15 points in just 10 minutes of action. Just one game earlier versus Colorado, White scored eight points in eight minutes. So I guess the question is, will Bill Self carve out consistent minutes for the freshman guard? I’m all for seeing players put up crazy points-to-minutes played ratios. Do it, coach.
2. As for that other school in the state, Kansas State fell to Gonzaga Saturday in the normally exciting Battle in Seattle. The Wildcats found themselves down one point at the half but it was only a matter of time before the Bulldogs were going to get rolling offensively. But second-half flameouts are becoming a trend against quality opponents like Michigan and the Zags. They were down 29-24 to the Wolverines before folding in the second half as well. After a home tilt against Texas Southern on Monday, the Cats will play another top five team in Florida on Saturday. I blame scheduling for all of this. We knew this Wildcats team is essentially the same as last year and will probably finish in the top four of the Big 12 but their non-conference schedule is either against top flight teams or scrubs. Why aren’t there more games against consistent mid-majors like Gonzaga or other power conference schools? No one can properly evaluate the Cats when all their losses are to ranked teams and their best win is probably against South Carolina Upstate.
3. I’m giving up on West Virginia. I thought their win over Virginia Tech (who is responsible for Oklahoma State’s one loss) was a sign that the Mountaineers were possibly turning the corner… but no. WVU predictably lost to a deeper, athletic and more talented Michigan team coached by ex-‘Eers coach John Beilein. They lost without Aaric Murray, who didn’t even make the trip to New York for committing a violation of some sort. What did Bob Huggins have to say about Murray not being with the team? “I’ve left guys home way, way, way better than Aaric Murray.” And his team’s performance on Saturday? “I’m sick of watching guys stand around. I’m sick of watching guys not compete. I’m sick of guys missing shot after shot after shot but never coming early, never staying late, don’t think about coming in on an off-day and then telling me they care? I haven’t had guys like that before. I want some guys that care.” It’s going to be that kind of year in Morgantown.
   
4. Iowa State‘s breakthrough 2011-12 season was welcomed with open arms to the college basketball world but its return to prominence was perfect except for one thing: The Cyclones lived with the sting of an early season loss to in-state rival Drake (ok, it’s probably not that serious). But ISU did get their revenge on the Bulldogs Saturday with an 86-77 win. Melvin Ejim poured in 21 points and 11 rebounds to lead the way. Ejim continues to be a fantastic rebounder (9.3 per game) for his 6’6″ frame. The last thing the Cyclones want to be seen as is a one-hit wonder.
5. Texas head coach Rick Barnes earned his 550th win as a college coach in Saturday’s 75-63 win over Texas State. While winning 550 games in any sport isn’t easy, Barnes’ teams have tended to be disappointments. Touted recruits have come to Austin and left quickly enough to not make a big impact on teams. As for Saturday’s game, the Longhorns’ 75 points were a season-high. They might need to score a little more than that if they want to give themselves a chance against North Carolina’s scorers (84 PPG) on Wednesday night.

Brendon Mulvihill is the head curator for @SportsGawker and an RTC contributor. You can find him @TheMulv on Twitter. See bottom of the post for the Official RTC Star System.

It’s been a slow week in college basketball with students hitting the books and getting through finals week. However, things pick up quite a bit this weekend with some great non-conference action led by a marquee match-up in the desert. Let’s get to the breakdowns.

Game of the Weekend 

#5 Florida at #9 Arizona – 10:00 PM EST, Saturday on ESPN (*****)

Will Patric Young Dominate the Wildcats Again This Season? (Getty)

• Florida won the match-up last season with Arizona in a tough overtime battle. The Gators’ Patric Young dominated the game with a career-high 25 points and 10 rebounds on 12-of-15 shooting. Coach Billy Donovan was disappointed the Gator guards did not get Young the ball more often. It will be interesting to see how Arizona responds this season to defending Young. The addition of 7’0″ freshman center Kaleb Tarczewski to the Wildcats line-up should make a significant difference for coach Sean Miller. His size will at least create problems at the basket for the 6’10” Young. Keep a close eye on Florida’s ability to create turnovers as well. It helped them win last season in Gainesville and will be a big factor again. Finally, three-point shooting will play a key role in the outcome of the game. Approximately 40% of Florida’s field goal attempts are from downtown and U of A gives up more treys than two-thirds of the teams in college hoops. You will want to keep an eye on Gator forward Erik Murphy from beyond the arc. He presents a tough match-up with his 6’10” frame and his ability to stroke the three. If Murphy is hitting from downtown, the Wildcats are in deep trouble.
• Arizona and Florida are both in the top 10 in offensive rebounding percentage. We mentioned Tarczewski’s defense before, but his biggest contribution to this game may be on the offensive boards. He needs to clean up the glass on missed shots to give Arizona as many looks as possible. Miller’s squad got excellent production last year from it’s backcourt against the Gators and need the same from guards Nick Johnson and Mark Lyons this season. Lyon’s needs to be careful of turnovers as he has a sub-one assist-to-turnover ratio. If he isn’t protecting the ball, Arizona will have trouble again this year.
• Arizona’s size will allow them to compete all game long with a very talented and good shooting Florida squad. Their ability to go big at guard with Kevin Parrom could be the difference in the game. While the jury is still out on the Wildcats, a home game against Florida will be a great barometer for what we can expect in the future. The team that wins the offensive rebounding battle will take this one.

More Great Hoops

#6 Louisville at Memphis – 2:30 PM EST, Saturday on Fox College Sports (****)

• Louisville won this match-up last season in a close eight-point ballgame. This season however they are without star center Gorgui Dieng due to his wrist injury. Dieng went for 14/14 last year and always makes a major impact on defense. Without Dieng manning the middle, Louisville actually lacks size. Duke took advantage of this size deficiency and was able to beat the Cardinals a few weeks ago as a result. Look for Memphis to try to do the same thing at home this Saturday. Memphis is tall on the inside and a good offensive rebounding team. They are not as good at getting to the free throw line, however, which is also how the Blue Devils beat the Cardinals. Memphis ranks #307 nationally in free throw rate. Guard play from the Tigers will be a key factor in this contest. They need to get to the line and not turn the ball over. In their blowout win against an Ohio team known for turning teams over, the Tigers only committed miscues on over 16% of their possessions. A lot has to go right for the Tigers to pull an upset here, but with Dieng out, this is their best opportunity.

Read the rest of this entry »

1. It’s a novelty in college basketball these days: A neutral site series between in-state foes from both power and non-power conferences. Come again? Yup, it’s time for the Big Four Series in Des Moines this weekend, which features a game between Iowa and Northern Iowa followed by a showdown between Drake and Iowa State. It strips the programs of a home game, but it’s been unbelievable to watch these teams play each other over the last several years. And to set up an actual tournament? That’s unheard of with the modern we-have-nothing-to-gain philosophy employed by almost every single BCS league team in college basketball.
2. Mark your calendars for next season. It looks as though Kansas State will likely host Gonzaga in Wichita as a salute of sorts to the fans in that city. The Wildcats will face the Zags in Seattle this weekend, but in the return game, Weber may opt for Wichita instead of the Sprint Center in Kansas City as a neutral destination. Apparently, those are the two choices he has, and he told a reporter with the Wichita Eagle he is leaning toward playing at Intrust Arena instead of the Sprint Center. Either way, you know it will probably be a sellout in either city.
3.  The Kansas City SB Nation blog has begun previewing Big 12 Conference play, since it is amazingly almost here. In the first edition of the preview, we get yet another reminder that Kansas rules all and probably will be hardly challenged in Big 12 play this year. Oklahoma State could do it, sure. Baylor could improve. So could Kansas State. But right now, amidst all of the chaos in the Big 12 and the league’s poor performances in non-conference play, the Jayhawks are the one thing you know you can count on. The Big 12 might be lost without Kansas this season.
4. When I saw this headline — “Jayhawks’ Ellis plans to work over break” — I thought Ellis had decided to get a part-time job outside of basketball. For a moment, I tried to figure out how in the world a guy playing Division I basketball would have enough time in the day to have a job, too, and then I read the story. It’s about how Ellis and the freshmen will work on their game during winter break without school in session, and then things started to make a little more sense. Ellis will need to use the time off to clear his head and relax a little bit. He’s playing only about 16 minutes a game right now, but Self said his minutes will continue to increase as long as he keeps working. Not at a job, of course. At basketball.
5. This news is a few days old, but it’s so priceless we just had to include it. West Virginia’s mascot is no longer allowed to hunt with his musket after he killed a black bear and got caught on tape. That seems like a pretty reasonable request. It would also make Fake Dwight Schrute from The Office pretty happy.

We are two weeks into our Pac-12 Pick’Em and things are beginning to heat up. Adam and Parker stole the show in our second week of picks, with each of them correctly picking nine of the 12 contests. Parker currently sits atop our leaderboard at 20-5 overall. I was the only one to miss UCLA’s win in Houston on Saturday afternoon, and Drew was the only one to pick Illinois’ upset of Gonzaga in Spokane. Unfortunately for Mr. Murawa, losses by Washington, USC, Fresno State, and California have put him in last place, all by himself. So now, we enter week three. Florida’s visit to Arizona and Kansas State meeting Gonzaga in Seattle headline the list as our games of the week.

Only a couple of differences in opinion this week. Drew was the only one to take the visiting Gators against Arizona, while Adam thinks #16 Creighton will knock off California in Berkeley. Adam also predicted the largest score differential in each highlighted game, taking the Wildcats to win by nine, and the Zags to win by 16.

The NCAA may be butchering another investigation, but they did something right on Tuesday. They are celebrating 75 years of March Madness with a list of all-time greats: the best players, teams, and moments in NCAA Tournament history. They aren’t ranked (wouldn’t that be a fun argument?) but there are plenty of arguments to be had by fans, and plenty of memories — good and bad — brought back to life in the lists. This note isn’t Big 12 related but I thought the same thing as our own editors said when I read the list for the first time:

“Shelvin Mack, really?”

Um, no.

With that out of the way, here’s how the Big 12 was represented:

Players

• C Bob Kurland, Oklahoma A&M 1943-46 (now Oklahoma State): Kurland played in the 1945 and 1946 NCAA Tournaments, winning the tournament’s Most Outstanding Player award in 1946. He was a three-time All-American (1944-46) and led Oklahoma A&M to back-to-back NCAA titles in 1945 and 1946, also winning two gold medals as a player.
• F Clyde Lovellette, Kansas 1949-52: Lovellette tells a story about his recruitment in high school. Kansas coach Phog Allen told the Indiana native that if he came to Kansas, the Jayhawks would win the 1952 national title and a gold medal in the Olympics. In 1952, Kansas beat St. John’s for the NCAA title then won a gold medal a few months later. Lovellette was an All-American and led the Big 7 in scoring each of his three seasons.
• C Wilt Chamberlain, Kansas 1956-58: He averaged 29.9 PPG in two seasons in Lawrence and is considered one of the greatest players of all time, making this one of the easier choices for the committee. Chamberlain was named the 1957 tournament’s Most Outstanding Player even though Kansas lost a three-overtime championship game to North Carolina, 54-53.
• F Danny Manning, Kansas 1984-88: Manning’s injury-ridden NBA career sometimes overshadows how great he was in college. He was the 1987-88 Player of the Year as well as the 1988 tournament MOP. He left Kansas as the Big 8’s all-time leading scorer with 2,951 points.

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1. You can file this into the Won’t Ever Happen In Our Lifetime category, but at least one random writer wants Bill Self to make the jump to the NBA ranks. Could Self coach the Washington Wizards? The argument here is that the Wizards are a younger team who may respond to his college-style tactics. Again, this simply will not happen, and it’s hard to fathom Self ever leaving his cushy, high-paying job at one of the top programs in college basketball. But it’s fun to think about. As is usually the case, Self’s success at the NBA level would entirely depend on the team around him. The failures of college-to-pro coaches almost always hinge on the personnel — the NBA is unquestionably a players’ league.
2. It’s easy to see Texas‘ flaws without looking at the numbers, but just for kicks, here’s a look at how the Longhorns’ horrendous statistics this season break down. Interestingly, Rick Barnes’ team actually took care of the ball better against UCLA by only turning it over on 15 percent of their possessions. Overall, though, it’s been a recurring problem, and this site does a great job of analyzing Texas’ true shooting percentage so far this year. Whether you embrace voodoo-like sabermetrics or not, the numbers are not pretty.
3. Kansas State missed its chance against Michigan. Now, the Wildcats have a make-or-break non-conference stretch, starting with a date against Gonzaga this weekend. The Zags dropped a home game to Illinois last weekend, but this game will be played in Seattle’s Key Arena on a semi-neutral floor. As assistant coach Chris Lowery puts it, “at least we’re not in The Kennel.” That’s for sure, no matter what happened against Illinois. Just ask West Virginia.
4. Korie Lucious will probably be fine. It hasn’t been a terrific start for the Iowa State point guard, though. Get this: So far this year, he’s turned the ball over more times than any other player in a major conference. He’s sitting at 41 turnovers over 10 games, to be exact, and that’s hardly what Fred Hoiberg thought he’d get out of the Michigan State transfer. As this article points out, this is a new responsibility and leadership role for Lucious, so give him a little time to adjust before blaming him for all of the Cyclones’ woes.
5. Marcus Smart, on the other hand, hasn’t needed to adjust at all as a freshman at Oklahoma State. Smart has done absolutely everything we all predicted him to do. We said Smart was a high-IQ, high intangibles guy, and he’s been that. We said he’d be dynamic. He’s done that, too. He’s scored, passed, rebounded, played hard and looks like the kind of game-changing player Travis Ford has been waiting for. No wonder the Cowboys look like a Big 12 contender just one year after finishing below .500.