1. On Christmas Day, Oklahoma defeated Harvard to win the Diamond Head Classic in Honolulu. The Sooners were led by senior Buddy Hield, who scored 34 points on 11-of-14 shooting from the field. It was the senior’s fourth 30-point game of the season and only the latest addition to his National Player of the Year portfolio. To say Hield’s season has been impressive would be quite an understatement. He is currently using 31 percent of Oklahoma’s possessions and scoring 24.9 points per game while performing even more efficiently than he did a year ago. Hield finished last season with an effective field goal percentage of 50.5 percent; he’s at 62.4 percent this year. On pace for a 50/50/90 season, it’s no wonder Hield is a legitimate NPOY contender.
2. Hield isn’t the only Big 12 player in the NPOY race. After last week’s 24 points and 10 rebounds in a true road win over Cincinnati, Iowa State’s Georges Niang is also in that picture. As Travis Hines of the Ames Tribune points out, Niang is posting career high numbers nearly across the board for one of the country’s top teams, and he’ll have even more opportunities to showcase his skills on the national stage against the toughest conference in the nation come January.
3. After a poor performance in Baylor’s 80-61 loss to Texas A&M, senior Taurean Prince bounced back with a huge game in the Bears’ subsequent 85-70 victory over New Mexico State. Prince hung 34 points on the Aggies in the win, but most importantly, he needed just 19 shots to get there. After a wildly efficient campaign last year, Prince’s efficiency numbers this season have lagged largely due to a subpar performance inside the three-point arc. Prince is shooting nearly seven percent worse on two-point shots this season. Thus, his 10-for-15 shooting on two-pointers against New Mexico State is a welcome sight for Baylor fans looking for the senior to find his groove.
4. After a limited slate of college basketball games during the recent holidays, things will get back to normal this week. Nine of the ten Big 12 teams have games remaining ahead of the start of conference play on Saturday. The league’s headliner will likely come on Tuesday night when Connecticut travels to Austin to face Texas. Shaka Smart’s Longhorns have already collected one resume-building win (an 84-82 thrilling victory against North Carolina) at the Erwin Center this season. The key to the game will likely be Texas’ ability to limit the Huskies’ two-point offense. Connecticut ranks eighth nationally in two-point percentage and has scored 57 percent of their points inside the arc. The Longhorns, though, figure to be up to the task. They’ve allowed opponents to shoot just 40.5 percent on two-point shots this season.
5. In the most recent iteration of his power rankings, Sports Illustrated’s Luke Winn pointed out that college basketball lacks truly elite teams this season. But that hasn’t stopped the Big 12 as a whole from putting together an impressive year. Oklahoma and Kansas currently occupy the top two spots in the KenPom ratings and the league is once again ranked as his toughest conference based on adjusted offensive and defensive efficiency ratings. In fact, if the Big 12 holds, the league’s .8342 rating will be the highest achieved by any conference since the Big Ten turned the trick in 2012-13.

1. In its first true road game of the season, Kansas exacted revenge on a rare home loss handed to them by San Diego State two years ago with a comfortable 70-57 win in Viejas Arena. The Jayhawks made a point to run a lot of their action through Perry Ellis, who exploited the Aztecs’ lack of skilled big men on his way to a game-high 20 points. The late-night tilt also included engaged efforts from Jamari Traylor and Brannen Greene, who skied for rebounds and found other ways to get involved without having to score. The reigning Big 12 champs will now get a break until next Tuesday, when the Jayhawks welcome UC Irvine and 7’6″ Mamadou Ndiaye to Allen Fieldhouse.
2. Oklahoma continues to run roughshod over all comers, as the Sooners demolished Washington State in their Diamond Head Classic opener on Tuesday night. Buddy Hield was incredible in this game, going for 25 points including 5-of-8 shooting from three. The game was actually close into the early stages of the second half, but a 17-0 Sooners run quickly removed all doubt about the outcome. More importantly, Oklahoma’s cushion allowed Lon Kruger to pull Hield with around 12 minutes left to rest his star, knowing that another game looms today against local favorite Hawai’i.
3. There was another thrilling finish involving Iowa State last night, as the Cyclones edged Cincinnati by two points on the road thanks to a clutch three-pointer from Abdel Nader. Steve Prohm leaned heavily on his experienced core, with Nader, Georges Niang and Monte’ Morris combining for 51 points and 19 rebounds in this game. The win represented vintage Iowa State relentlessness, with Cincinnati seemingly taking control with a late four-point lead, only to watch as the Cyclones held them to a single point the rest of the way. Prohm also received a nice jolt of offense from newcomer Deonte’ Burton in just his second game of the season, as the transfer guard contributed 12 points off the bench. From a resume standpoint, last night’s victory somewhat neutralizes last weekend’s tough loss to Northern Iowa, but the team’s lack of depth will likely remain a sticking point through league play.
4. In another impressive result last night, Texas Tech knocked early-season darling Arkansas-Little Rock from the ranks of the undefeated with a 65-53 victory at United Supermarkets Arena in Lubbock. The Red Raiders didn’t get their usual steady play from Devaugntagh Williams, instead leaning on a double-double of 12 points and 12 rebounds from Zach Smith. They still have to prove that they can win some games on the road, but Texas Tech has a strong case as the most-improved team in the Big 12 through the first month of the season and is a decent bet to pull a couple stunners after the calendar flips.
5. Another contender for the title of most improved team, Kansas State, disposed of South Dakota in workmanlike fashion with a 63-49 win last night at Bramlage Coliseum. Freshman Barry Brown led all scorers with 15 points, but the most impressive element of the win was the Wildcats’ outstanding effort on the glass. Bruce Weber‘s team waxed the Fighting Hawks on the boards, collecting 47.6 percent of their own misses and 77.8 percent of North Dakota’s. With only struggling Saint Louis remaining on their non-conference slate, the Wildcats have a strong chance to enter league play with just two losses, something it hasn’t done since the 2012-13 season.

Early this season, we’ve seen a fair amount of national chatter about a lack of great teams in college basketball. The tent poles of recent dominance (e.g., Duke, Kentucky, Kansas) have all seemingly taken a half-step back this year and we’re left with an intriguing collection of very good teams. But as we sit halfway through December, there is one team that has won all seven of its games by an average margin of 24.8 PPG, with two victories over clubs in the KenPom top 40. That team is Oklahoma.

Lon Kruger’s Sooners had an excellent week to say the least. (USA TODAY Sports)

Lon Kruger’s club has admittedly played a less challenging schedule, ranked 223rd nationally to this point. Against that competition, though, they’ve impressed. Their wins include a true road game at Memphis, a neutral court drubbing of highly-ranked Villanova, and a waxing of Wisconsin in which the Badgers’ only lead was 3-0. Against their lesser opponents, the Sooners have notched four more wins, each coming by more than 23 points. Their 7-0 record represents one of only eight teams still unbeaten, and yet they aren’t drawing as much attention as you might expect. Oklahoma currently sits at #3 in the AP Poll, receiving zero first place votes and behind one-loss Kansas. So why aren’t more people buzzing about the Sooners as a potentially great team? And what has made them so outstanding this season? The answer to those questions might, somewhat shockingly, represent the same thing. Take a look at the table below featuring Oklahoma’s three-point shooting this season.
Read the rest of this entry »

Another exciting week of college basketball is in the books and it was accompanied by two teams in particular standing out in earning impressive victories. #3 Oklahoma moved its overall record to 7-0 by earning victories over #11 Villanova and Oral Roberts. What made the former triumph so notably impressive was that the Sooners blew out the previously unbeaten Wildcats by a non-competitive 23-point margin. The Big 12 race this season figures to be hotly contested with #2 Kansas, #8 Iowa State, #15 Baylor, and #20 West Virginia all looking strong, but if the Sooners can replicate their performance in the victory over Villanova, Lon Kruger’s team could certainly be the team that emerges with the league crown. #5 Virginia has now won six straight games after its opening week setback at #25 George Washington. Last Tuesday’s dominant win over West Virginia once again showcased the beast that is Virginia basketball. The Cavaliers trailed by six at halftime before turning the heat on in the second half and out-scoring the Mountaineers by 22 points in the second stanza. This week’s slate is relatively light until Saturday, which is jam-packed with tremendous action. The Quick N’ Dirty is after the jump.

Quick N’ Dirty Thoughts.

Read the rest of this entry »

1. Texas came into the weekend in need of a signature win, and boy did it get one in Saturday’s thrilling victory over #3 North Carolina. In addition to Javan Felix‘s last-second heroics, the Longhorns’ big win can also be attributed to a standout effort on the defensive glass. On Saturday, Texas collected 83 percent of North Carolina’s misses, with Cameron Ridley fending off Kennedy Meeks and Brice Johnson in a season-high 33 minutes of action. And yet, even after topping the Tar Heels, the Longhorns still rank among the bottom 50 teams nationally in defensive rebounding percentage, proving how effective Saturday’s effort was.
2. It was only a year or so ago that Kansas was wondering if it could field a team with a steady point guard at the helm. Frank Mason has more than admirably filled that role, but now it’s the crowded Jayhawks’ frontcourt that has head coach Bill Self searching for answers. He might be somewhat closer to solutions after his team’s recent win over Oregon State, however. While Self admitted that his rotation may still fluctuate from game to game, senior transfer Hunter Mickelson and freshman Carlton Bragg made the biggest strides in Kansas City on Saturday night. With three games remaining until conference play begins, the big man situation in Lawrence is definitely something to monitor.
3. Speaking of the Kansas frontcourt, Rustin Dodd of The Kansas City Star wrote a terrific in-depth piece on the long, winding journey that brought Cheick Diallo from war-torn Mali all the way to Lawrence. Among many other qualities, Bill Self claims in the article that “nobody since I’ve been here, for 13 years — tries harder academically than [Diallo] does. Nobody.” In an odd twist of fate, it’s the effort Diallo gives in the classroom that made the NCAA eligibility center’s slog to clear him all the more frustrating, but it’s great to see the young rim protector on the floor and thriving these days.
4. In keeping with the backstories of some of the young talent around the conference, John Walker of The Oklahoma Daily gives us the lowdown on how Oklahoma head coach Lon Kruger swayed freshman Rashard Odomes to play for the Sooners. In classic Kruger fashion, the basketball lifer didn’t point to his accomplishments on the court; rather, to the family culture he’s fostered in Norman. It may be a year or two before Odomes plays a regular role on the team, but he’s a player we’ll be rooting for.
5. Last week’s court rush in Ames following Iowa State‘s thrilling comeback win over Iowa kickstarted another round of debate about the fan-inspired practice, with an injury to a reporter heightening the conversation’s volume. On Friday, however, the Big 12 ruled that Iowa State’s staff operated within the league’s code of conduct, putting an end to speculation that any punishment would come their way. While we feel for anyone — player, coach, media member, or fan — who gets injured in court rushings, the ritual still holds a unique place in college basketball’s culture. There may come a time when a school will need to face repercussions, but outright bans are generally unenforceable and would end up stinging in the long run.

1. We expected last night’s match-up between Oklahoma and Villanova to be one of the more entertaining non-conference games this season. Instead, Oklahoma’s 78-55 victory appears to have sent the two teams headed in opposite directions at least in terms of how they are being perceived. Coming into the season we thought that everybody had Oklahoma on their short list of potential Final Four teams given their combination of talent and experience while Villanova was probably slightly below them. Last night’s blowout will do nothing to open up seats on the Sooner bandwagon, but it has made many question Villanova’s ceiling particularly with their reliance on three-point shooting (and more importantly their inability to hit three-pointers consistently given how many of them they shoot). Having said that we wouldn’t be so quick to bail on the Wildcats particularly given with their best player being a freshman (Jalen Brunson) playing in his first big college game against more experienced opposition.
2. By now all of you are familiar with Jay Bilas and his penchant for trying to pick fights with the NCAA. Still his tweet yesterday that his “sources” had told him that the NCAA was discussing enacting new policies to limit bench celebrations was a little bit much even by his standards. David Worlock quickly squelched those rumors by saying that the NCAA had merely responded to questions regarding rules interpretations of bench celebrations and that those celebrations were not interfering with the games. We are sure that Bilas will try to argue that he was not incorrect (technically the NCAA may have had discussions about it based on the questions), but the overall nature of his tweet and many others like it seem to have devolved into nothing more than trolling the NCAA, which is approaching Bayless/Trump levels at this point. We can’t really fault Bilas for this because he has parlayed this into a very profitable venture that has made him into a media personality despite his livelihood essentially being profiting off the work of the same individuals he says continue to be exploited. The NCAA has plenty of issues that should be fixed so it doesn’t need trolls making up stories like this for their own personal gain.
3. It appears that Chipotle’s E. coli problems may have hit Boston as eight Boston College basketball players appear to be the latest victims of the burrito chain’s ongoing food poisoning issues. According to reports out of Chestnut Hill, the eight players are among 30 Boston College students complaining of symptoms consistent with food poisoning. While many national media outlets will be quick to claim that there is an established link and that the symptoms are directly related to eating at Chipotle, the actual investigation by the Massachusetts Department of Public Health will takes days (more likely weeks). In the mean time, the basketball team will have to figure out if it will be ready for its game tomorrow at Providence. We cannot remember the last time a game was cancelled because of team illness, but this seems like a distinct possibility right now.
4. We don’t talk about high school basketball much here with the exception of a few top recruits, but when a high school hires former Rutgers coach Mike Rice to coach its basketball team we take notice. Rice, who was fired in 2013 after multiple video surfaced of him throwing balls at his players and berating them with slurs, will serve as the interim head coach at The Patrick School in Elizabeth, New Jersey for the month of December while the regular head coach deals with his duties as the principal before presumably returning to coach the team afterwards. We aren’t sure what is so special about this month that it requires the principal’s attention more than other months as it seems more like a nice excuse to give Rice a trial run as its head coach without as much scrutiny as they would see if he was named the head coach without having an interim tag attached. While we feel that Rice deserves another shot, we expect that the practices will be the most closely supervised high school basketball practices in the nation.
5. We are a little late in posting Luke Winn’s Power Rankings, which explains Villanova being ranked over Oklahoma, but as usual it is filled with interesting stats so it’s still well worth linking to despite our tardiness. It’s still early in the season so we are not sure which stats Luke will adopt as his pet projects this year, but our favorite one so far this year is his Transition/Press Matrix that graphs the relationship between how much a team presses and how much of its offense it generates in transition. Technically we think the x- and y-axis should probably be flipped, but it doesn’t really matter in this case as the analysis still holds. If he continues to track this, which seems like more work than the Turnometer, we will be interested to see if these relationships change in conference play where schools will presumably play better competition than what they faced in non-conference play.

Three weeks into the season, college basketball is down to just 13 undefeated teams. We’ll be in for a treat tonight when two of those teams, Oklahoma and Villanova, square off at the Pearl Harbor Classic in Hawai’i. When people talk about the Sooners, they generally lead with the play of All-American Buddy Hield, and with good reason. The story of his transformation from Bahamian sleeper recruit to National Player Of The Year candidate on a top 10 team is worth telling.

Buddy Hield leads Oklahoma against Villanova in tonight’s clash of unbeatens. (David K Purdy/Getty Images)

While the Sooners aren’t lacking for weapons outside of Hield, he’s taken an even bigger role in his team’s offense and he’s only improved (albeit against suspect competition). His true shooting percentage, which measures collective efficiency on two-point shots, three-pointers and free throws, has risen from 54.5 percent to 62.0 percent this season, largely on the strength of improved accuracy from beyond the three-point line and the foul line. He has also done a better job of involving his teammates in Lon Kruger‘s offense, as his assist rate has improved from 13.2 percent to 16.2 percent this season.Additionally, Oklahoma’s opponents are struggling to contain the senior, fouling him an average of 7.1 times per 40 minutes.

As special as Hield has been, Oklahoma’s complementary players are worth much more ink than they’ve received. Ryan Spangler keeps the Sooners’ inside game steady with consistent rebounding and finishing down low, and Khadeem Lattin and Akolda Manyang have provided the help needed to fill the void left by TaShawn Thomas’ departure. As a sophomore, Lattin is making life miserable for opposing forwards with his rebounding and shot-altering ability despite only playing about 15 minutes per contest; meanwhile, the seven-foot Manyang has been a shot-blocking force in limited opportunities as he’s adjusted to the college level. Read the rest of this entry »

1. It’s the Monday following the announcement of this year’s College Football Playoff participants so it must be time to talk Big 12 expansion again, right? Unlike last year, however, the league might be forced to expand sooner rather than later. It was expecting a motion to deregulate conference championship games in football to pass next month, but the Big Ten has stepped in with a “last-minute amendment” that might hurt the 10-team conference’s chances of hosting such a game in 2016. Big 12 Commissioner Bob Bowlsby said he wouldn’t want to be forced to expand the league but admitted that it “could end up that way.” Expansion in football would directly affect basketball, of course, possibly enhancing or diluting the product depending on which direction it goes.
2. Baylor football had a rough go of things on Saturday, but the men’s basketball team turned those fortunes around Sunday night against #16 Vanderbilt. The Commodores went on a 17-0 run early in the second half to go up 10 but the Bears stormed back to tie the game at 52 with 8:40 to play. From then on, both teams traded body blows in what became a 40-minute basketball masterpiece that Baylor won, 69-67. Taurean Prince scored 30 points in front of over 30 NBA scouts and we all watched Lester Medford (15 points on 6-of-12 shooting) make big shot after big shot to nail it down for the Bears. This appears to be a strong profile-building win for Baylor.
3. Darker days are approaching for Oklahoma State, if they aren’t here already. After losing at home to Tulsa for the first time since 1985, the Cowboys fell even lower on Saturday as they lost to Missouri State (1-5 record, ranked 239th on Kenpom), 64-63. It was Missouri State’s first win against a Division I opponent this season. For the Cowboys, this marked the first time they have dropped two consecutive non-conference home games since, you guessed it, 1985. Meanwhile, Oklahoma State is still without top scorer Phil Forte indefinitely as Travis Ford has said that his status could be “day to day, week to week” or “month to month.” And the Sugar Bowl won’t be for another three-and-a-half weeks, huh? Yikes.
4. Oklahoma will take on Villanova tonight in a highly-anticipated top 10 showdown between potential Final Four teams. The game will of course be played at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii on the 74th anniversary of Japan’s infamous attack on the United States that thrust the country into World War II. Head coach Lon Kruger spoke on the significance of their visit to Hawaii as an opportunity for his players to learn more about an important part of America’s history.
5. Despite dealing with eligibility concerns with two players and an early transfer, Texas Tech head coach Tubby Smith has been forced to shorten his rotation in two ways: personnel and height. It seems to have worked thus far. The Red Raiders are 5-1 on the young season with their only loss coming against a Utah team they hung with for much of that game. Zach Smith and Norense Odiase have emerged as the two stalwarts down low while guard Keenan Evans has made strides as a scorer in his second season. The danger with a short rotation is when those players reach a point somewhere in conference play when they run out of gas and start putting forth weaker efforts. That’s something Smith will have to keep an eye on as the season progresses.

1. On a team as loaded as Kansas, it can be tough to keep track of the squad’s best performers on a week-to-week basis. Enter Topeka Capital-Journal beat writer Jesse Newell, who yesterday introduced a Luke Winn-inspired Power Rankings column chock-full of Vines, screenshots, advanced stats and (of course) rankings to separate the wheat from the chaff on the Jayhawks’ deep and talented roster. From his most recent column, it is abundantly clear that Wayne Selden is on a mission to disprove his doubters, but a team with as many weapons as Kansas can lead to someone different stepping up in any given week.
2. Oklahoma continued its early season dominance, annihilating Central Arkansas 111-68 in Norman last night. The Sooners could do no wrong, winning the rebounding battle by 25 boards while shooting an eye-popping 13-of-22 from deep. That long-range marksmanship was led by Jordan Woodard, who shot a white-hot 6-of-7 from behind the arc. Not surprisingly, the visitors also struggled to contain Buddy Hield, allowing 19 points and seven boards to the NPOY candidate. The Sooners are now 5-0 and rank ninth in KenPom’s national ratings with an average margin of victory of 24.4 points. Things get more challenging fast, however, as Oklahoma faces its biggest challenge of the young season on Monday when it squares off against fellow unbeaten Villanova in Hawaii.
3. The Shaka Smart era at Texas is off to a somewhat rocky start after losses to Washington, Texas A&M, Michigan and a close call against Texas-Arlington. According to Smart (via Austin-American Statesman writer Cedric Golden), the Longhorns’ prospects would be better if one or more of his players took on a clear leadership role. On the surface, guard Isaiah Taylor has the tools and confidence to become that guy, but he’s been a disappointment at the free throw line in close games. The Longhorns have two more games to find someone to fill that role before North Carolina rolls into town next Saturday.
4. Opportunities to step up abound on Kansas State‘s young roster, and the first few weeks have allowed JuCo transfer Carlbe Ervin to emerge as a steady backcourt contributor. Ervin provides Bruce Weber some much-needed versatility, as he is capable of both spelling starting point guard Kamau Stokes or playing alongside him if other members of the rotation aren’t performing. Ervin will be in action tonight when the Wildcats take on Georgia in their first true road game of the season.
5. Iowa State got a surprise when former NBA head coach and current ABC/ESPN commentator Jeff Van Gundy rolled into Ames on Thursday. Van Gundy may be best known as the former coach of the New York Knicks and Houston Rockets, but it shouldn’t be forgotten that he cut his teeth at the college level, breaking in as a graduate assistant for Rick Pitino at Providence in the mid-1980s. Van Gundy leveled with the Cyclones about life in the professional ranks before drawing an interesting comparison between Steve Prohm‘s team and the current Golden State Warriors. He hinted that the Cyclones would do well to follow the Warriors’ lead, noting that it was Stephen Curry and his teammates’ emphasis on defense that took them from being a very good team to world champions.

On Sunday afternoon, Oklahoma held Wisconsin, one of the country’s top 25 offenses, to just 0.80 points per possession. The Sooners’ 65-48 thrashing of last year’s national runner-up is just the latest example of a defensive transformation that has turned Lon Kruger’s squad into one of the top teams in the nation. Sure, the Badgers no longer have Sam Dekker and Frank Kaminsky on the floor, but their departures doesn’t take anything away from the latest example of Sooner stinginess.

Oklahoma’s swarming defense makes them a Final Four contender. (Mark D. Smith/USA TODAY Sports)

In 2013-14, Lon Kruger’s squad was upset in the first round of the NCAA Tournament by North Dakota State. They finished 91st in KenPom’s adjusted defensive efficiency metric that season. With four of their starters returning, the Sooners knew they would need to improve on their defense to take a leap forward in 2014-15. Those four starters — Jordan Woodard, Isaiah Cousins, Buddy Hield, and Ryan Spangler — are still in Norman, and still starting. That quartet, along with graduate transfer TaShawn Thomas, helped turn Oklahoma into one of the nation’s 10 best defensive teams last season. Despite Thomas’ graduation, Oklahoma is on pace for a similarly strong defensive campaign. The Sooners are currently ranked seventh in adjusted defensive efficiency. Read the rest of this entry »