The word of the weekend is upset: U-P-S-E-T. That pretty much sums up the last few days in college basketball, where there seemed to be a lesser-team (at least on paper) beating a seemingly better team (again, at least on paper) in every time slot. If your team had a ranking next to it, chances are they were threatened at one point or another in their latest game or two. Along with those upsets came titles. This weekend marked the unofficial end of the early-season tournaments until a handful of Christmas tourneys come around, with winners being crowned in the Old Spice Classic, the Wooden Legacy and the Battle 4 Atlantis. Even when there wasn’t a trophy up for grabs, the games were just as compelling. Just ask North Carolina (making “upset Sunday” a regularity) or Creighton (which lost in a third-place game). Their losses weren’t softened by knowing that hardware wasn’t on the line.

First, it was Villanova having arguably the best time anyone had in the Caribbean. Initially, the Wildcats pulled off an upset of #2 Kansas 63-59 in the semifinals of the Battle 4 Atlantis on Friday night. The Jayhawks shot just 18.9 percent from three-point range.

Congrats to Villanova – super W over Kansas – pls get rid of ALTERNATE Possession rule – penalizes a good D effort !

— Dick Vitale (@DickieV) November 30, 2013

That’s good, but how do you validate it? Go out and beat no. 23 Iowa in the finals, winning the whole thing on Saturday, 88-83 in overtime. James Bell had 20 in the win.

Villanova vs. Iowa recap: Wildcats down Hawkeyes in OT, take Battle 4 Atlantis crown! http://t.co/qiopUD2N77 pic.twitter.com/9BxnEzXNoD

— VUhoops.com (@VUhoops) December 1, 2013

Jay Wright may submit his application for consideration of a team’s best weekend in college basketball at any time.

On Sunday, the first eye-opener came when pupil beat student as Jarod Haase and UAB welcomed Roy Williams and North Carolina, and sent them packing with a 63-59 loss. Chad Frazier might be the best junior college newcomer in all of college basketball, finishing with 26 points in the win and averaging 18.4 points in his first eight games on campus. Read the rest of this entry »

1. Memphis belongs. That much is clear after the Tigers outplayed and outlasted Oklahoma State last night in the rematch of a blowout two weeks ago in Stillwater. Josh Pastner broke his oh-for streak against AP Top 25 opponents in a big way, taking down the fifth-ranked Cowboys in the Old Spice Classic finals in Orlando. Led by Shaq Goodwin’s 17 points and eight rebounds, the Tigers proved they are going to be a force to be reckoned with in this season’s AAC race. While Marcus Smart’s abysmal play in that game should not be overlooked, the Tigers’ resilience in the rematch garnered the majority of the national attention. USA Today focuses on the play of Memphis’ guards, which was a total flip from the first meeting at OSU. The group that showed up last night will have to do so consistently for the Tigers to make a run at the AAC title, but the long-awaited win will keep Pastner’s detractors at bay for a while and could be just the jump start the Tigers need for the rest of the season.
2. Louisville’s Wayne Blackshear has to provide the conference favorites with more consistency if the Cardinals want to reach their lofty expectations. As a Cardinal, Blackshear has yet to live up to his own lofty expectations coming out of high school. The McDonald’s All American averaged 32.6 points, 14.6 rebounds, 5.7 assists 3.7 steals as a senior at Morgan Park in Chicago. He was named the Sun-Times’ Player of the Year over former NPOY Anthony Davis. Blackshear has shown flashes of brilliance, such as in Friday night’s dominant victory over Southern Mississippi, but he also has a tendency to have no-show games. For the Cardinals to reach their third consecutive Final Four and a good shot at defending their title, Blackshear will have to become the third scorer behind Russ Smith and Chris Jones, and do more than just put points on the board but also contribute in other ways too.
3. One of the more highly anticipated non-conference games for AAC teams this season will take place tonight at 7:oo PM in Gampel Pavilion when undefeated Connecticut welcomes Florida to town. The Gators’ offense has improved greatly since the return of Scottie Wilbekin, who was suspended for the first five games of the season. Combined with Michael Frazier, the Florida backcourt will give UConn a stern test in what will be a match-up of two of the best backcourts in the country. With a win, Connecticut could begin to make a strong case as the team to beat in the AAC when conference play begins at the end of the month.
4. Mick Cronin is making sure his players will not over look tomorrow night’s opponent, South Carolina Upstate. The undefeated Bearcats will travel away from home for the first time next Saturday for a tough match-up at New Mexico, but Cronin is first worried about a Spartans team that took out Virginia Tech in their season opener. As of today, the Spartans actually have a higher RPI than the Bearcats. That won’t last, but regardless of that a win here could turn out to be a better than expected victory when March rolls around and every game is scrutinized for NCAA Tournament seeding or selection.
5. Louisville deployed a more balanced attack Friday night against Southern Mississippi, which proved much more successful than the Russ Smith-Chris Jones show that ended in defeat against North Carolina last week. No player attempted more than 10 shots against the Golden Eagles, compared to that loss, when Smith and Jones accounted for 42 of the team’s 67 attempts. Last year’s national title team won with unselfishness and making the extra pass. The 2013-14 version must adopt the same mantra to reach its potential.

1. We hope all of you had a relaxing Thanksgiving break. We also hope you managed to catch some basketball as well as there were quite a few interesting results. For those of you who missed some or all of be action, here is a quick recap of the more significant results: Arizona proved it belongs in the discussion as a national title contender against a Duke team that is having more flaws exposed early in the season; Villanova moved into the top 25 by winning the Battle 4 Atlantis knocking off Kansas and Iowa in succession; Memphis exacted a measure of revenge by knocking off Oklahoma State after getting blown out in Stillwater a two weeks ago; Wichita State picked up a big non-conference road win at St. Louis that could be worth a line or two on Selection Sunday; and Roy Williams did a favor for former assistant Jerod Haase by bringing UNC to UAB and Hasse repaid him by upsetting the Tar Heels.
2. We are still waiting on an explanation as to why Georgetown dismissed injured junior Greg Whittington from the team. Whittington, who averaged 12.1 points and 7.0 rebounds per game in 13 games last season before being ruled academically ineligible. He was expected to return to the Hoyas this season, but those plans were halted by a torn ACL in his left knee. Given Whittington’s prior academic issues it would not be shocking if that was the reason for his dismissal. Assuming this is not some significant legal issue we would expect Whittington to be among the most highly sought-after transfers this year.
3. Last week we mentioned Cody Doolin‘s strange departure from San Francisco. It turns out the reason that he left was an altercation with a teammate. We have not heard many details on what happened, but since Doolin started all 103 of his career at San Francisco we assume it was either a longstanding issue or he felt that the team had turned against him. Either way it is a significant loss for the Dons, who are using Penn State transfer Matt Glover as a replacement for Doolin.
4. It appears that Louisville is comfortable with Chane Behanan‘s explanation as to how his 2012 Final Four ring ended up on an online auction site. After an investigation the school announced that it had cleared Behanan of any wrongdoing in the case. According to Behanan and his family the ring had been left with Behanan’s grandmother who believed the ring was safe in a box in her bedroom. When the ring ended up on the auction site she went back to check on it and said it must have been stolen. While it is possible that Louisville has had very bad luck with suspicious incidents recently when they start adding up you begin to wonder.
5. Last week, when Tom Izzo voiced his displeasure with the new rules and the way they were being enforced we stated our desire to wait to see the data before making any comment. We still think it is too early to make any definitive decision on it, but Ken Pomeroy has put some preliminary data together on scoring, free throws, turnovers, and pace. Some might argue that the differences back up what Izzo and others have said, but we would like to see if they are statistically significant and even if they are as long as the rules are being enforced consistently to create a better product we have no problem with the changes. Also as Pomeroy notes, the more interesting changes might be the ones that Izzo and others have not been harping on.

1. Houston freshman big man Ahmed Hamdy is one of two Egyptian players ruled ineligible this season by the NCAA, but both say they relied on the advice of a former Division I coach. Their infraction was spending an extra postgraduate year at a Texas prep school upon the advice of Marco Morcos, an Egyptian who was an assistant at both FIU and Rice and who helped bring them to the US. Morcos denies he advised them to stay, or that he had any particular influence over their decision. It seems, rather, that this is a rather stark example of exploitation; Hamdy and Aly Ahmed, a sophomore at Cal State Bakerfield, barely speak English, and a number of adults seem to have been trying to push them in directions advantageous to the adults rather than the teenagers. And yet the NCAA, as it so often does, punished a technical violation of the rule without the appearance of common sense having been applied. Here’s hoping Hamdy and Ahmed get past this and find the chances they deserve.
2. Memphis rolled past Siena 87-60, a necessary first step toward a potential rematch with Oklahoma State in the Old Spice Classic. That’s something they claim to want, despite how poorly it went the first time. Now it’s obvious that the Tigers would like to win the Old Spice Classic – they play LSU in Friday’s semifinal – and that would likely require beating the Cowboys on Sunday. At least this time it wouldn’t be in such a hostile environment. But still, they lost by 21 the first time after trailing by as many as 32. The game was a blowout after a tight first 10 minutes, and it doesn’t seem that they’ve had enough time to patch up the flaw that the Cowboys so easily exploited, namely their lack of an ability to run an offense with anything approaching efficiency.
3. Cincinnati head coach Mick Cronin is most thankful for his three senior captains – Sean Kilpatrick, Justin Jackson, and Titus Rubles – to whom he gives much of the credit for the team’s 5-0 start. In particular, he says their sustained effort has allowed the Bearcats to pursue their pressure defense for the full 40 minutes. The results so far, even against a fairly weak schedule, are hard to dispute. According to KenPom, Cincinnati ranks #15 in adjusted defense, #13 in opponents’ effective field goal percentage, and a lofty #6 in turnover percentage. But probably most important is that all three are playing substantially better on the offensive end in the early going. Of the trio, only Kilpatrick managed an offensive rating over 100 last year at 108.5. His offensive rating through five games – an admittedly small sample size, to be sure – is a ridiculous 150.7, good for #11 nationally. Jackson and Rubles have seen similar improvements, from 82.5 and 87.8, to 109.7 and 108.3, respectively. If the trio can continue to produce on the offensive end, the Bearcats will likely exceed expectations based on the perception they would struggle to score.
4. Louisville had a wildly successful year athletically in the 2012-13 academic year, including its third basketball national championship and the election of coach Rick Pitino to the Hall of Fame. Now the school apparently plans to buy airtime on ESPN to relive the highlights, which also includes a Sugar Bowl win and a trip to the College World Series, among others. Pitino told WDRB that the school is producing a “Year of the Cardinal” special as a marketing tool. Athletic Director Tom Jurich has been rightly hailed as perhaps the best in the country at what he does, and this looks to be another outside-the-box idea that could pay long-term dividends for the program.
5. The news cycle has mostly moved on from Chane Behanan’s championship ring-gate, but Louisville still hasn’t officially weighed in beyond saying that it’s looking into it. That probably is just because of the holiday, but we’ll see if they have anything more to say before returning to the court against Southern Mississippi at 7:00 PM Friday night. Guessing not.

Two weeks into the regular season and plenty, plenty, plenty of games and storylines to talk about. We’re back with the second RTC Podblast of the year, our shorter-and-sweeter Friday review of a few of the week’s highlights and look-aheads to the weekend’s upcoming big games. Your host, Shane Connolly (@sconnolly114) leads us through a discussion of the trials and tribulations of Memphis basketball, a status check on Oklahoma State, some Iowa State discussion, and a number of other interesting things, all in a tidy 20-minute blast. The complete rundown is below.

Make sure to add the RTC Podcast to your iTunes lineup so that you’ll automatically upload it on your listening device after we record. And feel free to contact us through Twitter or email — we’re listening.

• 0:00-3:58 – Memphis Proves Randy Right
• 3:58-8:57 – Oklahoma State-ment
• 8:57-11:35 – Ranking the Terrific Tuesday Performances
• 11:35-14:37 – Cyclones With Another Impressive Win
• 14:37-20:55 – What We Look For In The Holiday Tournaments

There probably aren’t too many college basketball coaches who have found themselves on the hot seat just one season after winning more than 30 games, but after a disappointing loss to Oklahoma State on Tuesday that left him 0-13 against teams ranked in the AP Top 25, Memphis coach Josh Pastner is probably feeling a bit toasty. Tuesday’s showdown with the Cowboys was supposed to be an opportunity for Pastner’s Tigers to prove that they were ready for and deserved national recognition. Instead it served as the latest public service announcement on why you should never trust Memphis in big games. Sure, Oklahoma State may have won the game anyway because Marcus Smart doesn’t belong in college basketball and Stillwater is not an easy place to play, but Memphis didn’t even make it competitive. It’s probably unfair to judge this year’s team based on its second game of the season, but Pastner shouldn’t get to be so lucky.

A Proven Recruiter, Josh Pastner Needs To Prove He Can Coach Too If He Wants To Keep His Job

Pastner’s reputation as an up-and-coming coaching superstar didn’t really begin until he graduated fromArizona and became an assistant at his alma mater under Lute Olson in 2002. Pastner’s reputation as a tireless worker preceded him and he quickly used that work ethic to establish himself as one of the best recruiters in the entire country, luring stars like Channing Frye, Mustafa Shakur, and Chase Budinger to the desert with a combination of charm and persistence. That recruiting prowess (as well as Olson’s retirement) played a big role in Pastner moving on to become an assistant coach and lead recruiter at Memphis, working under the Godfather of Recruiting himself, John Calipari, for the 2008-09 season. Calipari resigned after the season to take the job with Kentucky and it looked like Pastner would follow Calipari to Lexington. But the college basketball coaching ranks were experiencing a bit of a youth movement and a passionate and energetic 31-year-old like Pastner was the poster boy for this shift.

Read the rest of this entry »

Eli Linton is an RTC correspondent. He filed this report after last night’s game between Oklahoma State and Memphis in Stillwater. 

After what we have seen on display early this season from an outstanding freshman class led by Andrew Wiggins, Julius Randle, and Jabari Parker, Marcus Smart went into Gallagher-Iba Arena on Tuesday night as the forgotten sophomore, but he left as arguably the best and most complete player in the nation. No.7 Oklahoma State sent a message to the rest of the college basketball world, dismantling No.11 Memphis, 101-80, behind a first half explosion from Smart, who turned in the best performance of the season so far. The game that was supposed to be a showdown between two very talented backcourts ended up instead as a showcase of Smart as a superstar talent, and left everyone wondering just how far this Oklahoma State team can go this season.

Smart Was Sensational on Tuesday Night (SI.com)

In just 16 first half minutes, Smart unleashed 26 points on 8-of-16 shooting. Memphis, by comparison, scored 32 points in the entire half and went 11-of-31 from the field. The greatest stretch of dominance from Smart happened during a two-minute window in the first half, when he scored 12 points on four straight possessions. He finished with a career-high 39 points, five steals, four rebounds, and four assists. “When he scores like that, he could be the best player in college basketball,” said Memphis coach Josh Pastner after the loss. “There is a reason why he was a first-team All-American. Tonight he was tremendous.”

Read the rest of this entry »

We’ve seen about two weeks of the college basketball season fly by, and between ESPN’s 24 Hours of College Basketball, the State Farm Champions Classic, and the bevy of compelling storylines, there’s been no shortage of great things to discuss. So this week’s College Basketball by the Tweets focuses on Tuesday night, with a strong slate of games to choose from and an unlimited supply of tweets to embed. The night belonged to the scorers — the men who eschewed passing and got their shots up. When it was all said and done, seven players finished with more than 30 points, led by Wisconsin forward Frank Kaminsky‘s 43, which was a school record. Jahii Carson poured in 40 as well for Arizona State. What were some of the reactions around the Twitter-verse?

Jahii Carson. 40.

— Jeff Borzello (@jeffborzello) November 20, 2013

Ariz St finishes off UNLV. Jahii Carson had 40 points and 7 assts. Not a bad night at the office.

— Seth Davis (@SethDavisHoops) November 20, 2013

True "@raphiellej: "@MedcalfByESPN: UNLV just can't do anything with Carson. Wow." Not many can."

— Myron Medcalf (@MedcalfByESPN) November 20, 2013

Wisconsin's Frank Kaminsky scored a total of 63 points in his freshman year. He scored 43 points against North Dakota tonight. Wow.

— Jay Bilas (@JayBilas) November 20, 2013

Tell me the Avatar photo isn't terrific of Frank "The Tank" Kaminsky. Take a close look. It's phenomenal.

— Jeff Goodman (@GoodmanESPN) November 20, 2013

Also, lost in all this is the play of North Dakota’s Troy Huff, who scored 37 points of his own in the 103-85 loss to the Badgers.

Troy Huff came off the bench to score 37 pts in 28 mins. @GMT_ronreezy also scored 19 off the bench on 7/10 FG. Crazy offensive numbers.

— Jonathan Reed (@bigskybball) November 20, 2013

We also saw those same freshman we were introduced to last week, and they backed up their first big-time performance with solid games on Tuesday night. Jabari Parker, for instance, went end-to-end for a huge dunk the Duke’s 83-74 victory over East Carolina. And Twitter went off. Read the rest of this entry »

Four Thoughts is our way of providing some rapid reactions to some of the key games involving AAC teams throughout the season.

• In some ways, it’s unfair to judge Memphis too harshly based on Tuesday night’s blowout loss at Oklahoma State. Once things start to unravel on the road, they have a tendency to get away from you, as the Tigers were so clearly reminded. That said, they contributed quite a bit to their own woes. It became apparent early on that they were at best uninterested in running offense, with one or two perimeter passes preceding long jumpers without the ball ever making it below the free throw line. Oklahoma State opened in a sagging man-to-man, clogging the lane while giving the Tigers outside shots which they were much too quick to take. ESPN.com‘s play-by-play divides all shots into jumpers and layups; in the first half, Memphis was 7-of-12 on layups and 3-of-19 on jumpers. That’s how you fall behind by 18 at halftime, at which point the game was effectively over. On a couple of occasions, Memphis threw multiple passes and got good looks inside, but just as often a player got the ball on the perimeter, called a clearout and began an ill-fated drive into traffic. That can work against physically overmatched teams, but failed miserably on the road against a higher-ranked opponent.

Joe Jackson (right) walks dejectedly off the floor dueing the second half of a rout at the hands of Oklahoma State. (Memphis Commercial-Appeal)

• The headline will definitely be the performance of Marcus Smart, and he was spectacular. It was a series of three-pointers in the first half that got him trending on Twitter and blew the game open. Great players will have great games, but the long-distance assault probably isn’t what should concern Josh Pastner going forward. Smart hasn’t been a good shooter, averaging 29 percent from three last year and 31 percent in his first three games this season, so giving him those jumpers isn’t the worst idea. But before he channeled Steph Curry, he was having his way by posting up Memphis’ slighter guards; he made particular sport of Joe Jackson, on whom he has three inches and 50 pounds. Shabazz Napier, the guard who leads conference foe UConn in rebounding, had to enjoy what he saw. While Smart’s shooting night may have been a bit of a surprise, he is a consensus first-team All American; the Tigers’ utter failure to slow him has be of major concern given the guard-dominant AAC. What must Russ Smith be thinking?

Read the rest of this entry »

1. Last night was supposed to be the national stage on which Josh Pastner and his Memphis Tigers announced they were for real. Instead, Marcus Smart happened. And now the scrutiny on the Tigers and their inability to win games against quality opponents will be even greater. Last night’s game was never close at any point as Smart and the Cowboys led by 18 at the half and cruised to an easy victory from there as the Tigers turned the ball over 14 times and made just two of their 13 three-point attempts. There was never any question that Smart would be the best player on the floor for either team last night, but many expected Memphis’ veteran and deep backcourt to make things competitive. Instead the team’s best player was reserve forward Nick King and the quartet of senior guards were basically non-existent for much of the game. Senior leader Joe Jackson had exactly zero assists in 25 minutes and super-transfer Michael Dixon went just 1-of-10 from the field and turned the ball over three times. For years the Tigers and Pastner have garnered national recognition thanks in large part to the program’s ability to beat up on Conference USA opponents and bring in ballyhooed recruiting classes. But after last night’s drubbing, it seems like everyone is starting to figure it out and Memphis will have to earn its way back into the national conversation as Pastner fends off questions about whether his coaching will ever catch up to his recruiting.
2. Yesterday was a good day for Louisville guard Kevin Ware. The junior made headlines last year when news leaked that he had missed a court date for a reckless driving and speeding citations. To make matters worse, the media immediately started asking questions about a 2013 Dodge Challenger that Ware was driving. Right before another solid 13 minutes of play in an easy win over Hartford, Louisville announced that Ware has been cleared by school compliance and would remain eligible. It seems like Ware had simply been lent the car by his close friend (I wish I had close friends who would lend me their awesome cars), which is not a violation of any NCAA rules. Ware still has to be back in court next Monday for his rescheduled hearing, but he will probably be allowed to pay the fine and move on with his life. This story appears to have quickly runs its course, but before it disappears it did the handy job of wrecking the feel-good story of Ware’s triumphant return to the court. This is all fine by us as we weren’t particularly comfortable with the cheesy “long road back” stories and we aren’t comfortable with all of the moralizing being done by some media members on the issue of this speeding ticket. Having now been on both ends of the media barrel, hopefully Ware can move on and we can talk about his play on the court rather than all of the extra noise off it. Although it’s worth noting that any time we can get an opportunity watch Rick Pitino scold the media about doing their jobs, we all win.
3. It has only been five games but it already feels like it is going to be an up-and-down season for Rutgers and new head coach Eddie Jordan. One night after the Scarlet Knights looked impressive in knocking off Canisius, they were completely throttled last night by a Drexel team that was clearly better than them in every facet of the game. This is what happens when you combine legitimate talent with a complete lack of depth under the tutelage of a first-year coach still navigating the college game. Unfortunately, the ups and the downs have already started happening and the Scarlet Knights really haven’t played anybody yet, which makes some of us wonder whether they are in for a long season. There was some good news for the program today as the 2014 recruiting class officially signed and it is a good one. It’s only a three-man class, but it offers talent and versatility that will hopefully help the team return to relevancy sooner rather than later.
4. In the most trivial news of the day, Cincinnati freshman guard Deshaun Morman broke his foot in practice and will be forced to redshirt this season for obvious medical reasons. We say trivial not because breaking a foot is trivial but because Morman hadn’t played in any of the team’s first three games and was likely going to redshirt anyway. Head coach Mick Cronin seemed to indicate there was a chance Morman wouldn’t redshirt, but now the decision has been made for him and the limping Bearcats’ backcourt will need to find depth from somewhere else. In the same story, Cronin mentions that starting point guard Ge’Lawn Guyn‘s status for the Bearcats’ next game is up in the air as Guyn recovers from a sore right knee. The silver lining is that at least these injuries are happening in the early part of the schedule and not in February.
5. Larry Brown has forgotten more about coaching basketball than my puny head will ever be able to comprehend, but it’s quotes like the one he gave after last night’s disappointing loss to Arkansas that make me wonder why recruits enjoy playing for him. The quote, if you are really too lazy to click on the link, went something like this, “Ben Moore was great… found out that I have some freshmen that need to play more and seniors who shouldn’t.” Giving Moore credit where credit is due is all well and good, but calling out two seniors on your team in front of the media after the third game of the season seems like an irrational tactic. Shawn Williams and Nick Russell were the only two seniors who played last night, so it’s not hard to figure out who Brown was throwing under the bus, and the best part is that neither Russell nor Williams played particularly poorly last night. Brown cleaned house when he arrived in Dallas and got away with it because he quickly replaced those departing players with more talented ones, but it’s hard to believe Brown has any loyalty to any of his players given the way he talks about them publicly. Forward Jalen Jones has already announced he will transfer and the Mustangs could actually use him. Don’t be surprised if some of the newcomers now get pushed out of the rotation as Brown tries to continue to improve the talent level in the program. There is nothing wrong with trying to improve the team, but you won’t get the team to play hard for you if you don’t have their backs and Brown has made it very clear that if you don’t play well, he won’t have your backs.