Northern Kentucky at Cleveland State

Great to be back in Cleveland, and even better to be back here for the Horizon League opener between the CSU Vikings and Northern Kentucky. These two squads were each picked to be in the top three of the league and have considerable experience.

PREGAME

BIG Energy in pregame.#NKUNorse#CSUVikes pic.twitter.com/LMmJe8Btck

— Rocco Miller (@RoccoMiller8) December 2, 2021

Game Notes: NKU
- Seeking revenge after being swept here last year (B2B format), included an OT loss
- Norse rank 31st in 3-point FG% (39.5), 33rd in made treys/gm(10.2)
- NKU brought back 91% of its scoring from LY, ready for a Horizon run.
- Top steals team in HL

Game notes: Cleveland State
- Horizon League pick to win league, with 30 first-place votes
- D'Moi Hodge has been CSU's top offensive threat, averaging a team-best 12.3 points per, including a 27-point game against Canisius
- Vikings lead the Horizon with a 1.36 Ast/TO margin

Starting Lineups:
NKU
2 Vinson, Sam
3 Warrick, Marques
4 Nelson, Adrian
14 Sims, Seybian
22 Faulkner, Trevon

CSU
5 Gomillion, Tre
22 Parker, Deshon
24 Patton, Torrey
35 Johnson, Deante
55 Hodge, D'Moi

FIRST HALF ACTION

A lesser-known freshman emerging in the Horizon League is Sam Vinson. Vinson has already won FOTW twice in three weeks. Vinson just demonstrated beautiful vision and delivered a hook-pass on time to a cutting Adrian Nelson. Norse had the early 5-4 lead at the first break. However, the lead would not last long.

Cleveland State enforced their style of play from about the 15-minute mark forward. Forced a recent shot clock violation on the Norse. CSU has limited NKU to 7-for-21 shooting and owning things in the paint with an 18-8 edge down low. 6:27 remains until Half, CSU leads 26-18.

The Vikings roll continues as a 16-3 run for Cleveland State led to an NKU timeout. Vikings are really bringing high energy and defensive intensity. CSU is running a clinic defensively in the way they anticipate the passing lanes and contest essentially every shot by NKU. Really impressive to see up close. Vikings’ lead is now 32-18.

A frustrated Darrin Horn argues about a shot-clock issue. Horn’s Norse were frustrated early and often tonight.

As we approach Halftime, NKU was just 3-for-18 from distance. If you remember in the game notes, this Norse bunch is an excellent perimeter shooting team. CSU has truly contested every one of those 16 shots. This is a Norse team who is used to having success behind the arc. Clearly a frustrated bunch.

Halftime: Cleveland State 39, NKU 25.

2ND HALF

Tre Gomillion took a rough spill directly onto his back, which looked brutally painful. He's clearly tough as nails, like the rest of his CSU teammates. Got up from that fall somehow, and sunk both free throws. CSU up 43-28 early in the 2nd Half.

The Vikings continue to dominate. CSU is up 56-38 at this point. An 8-0 run here stretched the 10-point lead up to 18, the largest of the evening for the Vikings. Spider Johnson continues to play well, adding a nifty layup during that sequence.

It’s now getting late in the game, and CSU has a ridiculous 46-14 edge in the paint. The styles of the teams certainly would tell you that CSU is the team preferring to get easy looks from close, and NKU a team looking to find open shooters. But still, come on - this is a lopsided figure.

All Cleveland State tonight, 72-58 winners over NKU. CSU goes to 1-0 in league play and has won five straight games. Torrey Patton - 20 D'Moi Hodge - 15 Deante Johnson - 14.

FINAL - Cleveland State 72, Northern Kentucky 68

POSTGAME

Torrey Patton, Spider Johnson, and D'Moi Hodge came into the Media room and were sitting there chopping it up before we get started with official postgame festivities. It was really fun to hear them talk about the game among themselves and they added comments on some of the NKU players - which I won’t share here.

Torrey Patton, Spider Johnson, and D'Moi Hodge.

About five minutes later, Head Coach Dennis Gates came in for what will go down as a memorable press conference in my book. Gates took the time to answer probably ten or more questions, and had about a three-minute opening statement. I certainly appreciate all of the time he took to describe tonight’s game in thorough detail. I even more appreciate the way Gates talked about what this Cleveland State program is all about. Here was Coach Dennis Gates opening comments:

Opening comments from the victorious Coach Gates. pic.twitter.com/KyufCdiyRx

— Rocco Miller (@RoccoMiller8) December 3, 2021

Dennis Gates would late go on to describe a defensive award that the team gives out every night. He talked about how everyone wants a piece of that award and to earn Horizon League Defensive Player of the Year Award. The same award that the conference gave to Tre Gomillion last season. Gates pointed out that Gomillion didn’t even win the team DPOY Award last year because they grade on an entirely different scale. That got me curious, so I asked Coach Gates, “What do you do differently behind the scenes to play this style and to keep these guys constantly hungry?”

Gates gave a full answer. He was quick to point out that they brought in Ryan Sharbaugh to be the team's defensive coordinator and more specifically how Sharbaugh trains the players on “being annoying.” It’s an actual thing CSU focuses a lot on. In hindsight, it really showed tonight. D’Moi Hodge added that they watch a ton of film on opposing offenses and embrace being dogs out there on the court.

FINAL THOUGHTS

Cleveland State - Impossible to not be impressed by them. So much of what they do is what I love to see in a team in terms of playing excellent team basketball. They are one of the top assists teams with truly balanced scoring. And of course, the energy on defense is one of the best I’ve seen in person. Just amazing. The only concern is with games being Thursdays and Saturdays in the Horizon League, will game two slow them down a bit with fatigue? I’d say no for the home games, but on the road, it could be a challenge. Otherwise, there is a ton to like here.

Northern Kentucky - The Norse are better than what they showed tonight. But this was just a brutal matchup for them. Sam Vinson looks like a real good prospect. Coach Horn is still trying to find his better rotations and unfortunately didn’t make much progress today. With a lot of time, and a lot of league games (22!!), I trust that NKU will find their rhythm on both ends of the floor. Certainly a top half of the league team, with a ceiling of 3rd Place in all likelihood.

That’s all from Cleveland, thank you for following.

Teams of the Week: Nov. 9-14

Welcome back to the Teams of the Week column! A few changes for this piece pertaining to the upcoming season. Due to time constraints and several other projects in College Basketball, we will shorten this down to a quick highlight on each team. Besides, many folks have shorter attention spans these days - so maybe this is good for all of us?

The purpose of this article is to recognize programs each week who achieve great feats relative to expectations and relative to the big picture of the regular season conference races and/or March Madness.

This opening week was full of highlights and primarily dominated by non-power school headlines. Four of the five awards this week go to said schools.

College Basketball Teams of the Week – Week 1 (November 9-14, 2021)

Furman

Paladins went into Louisville, led most of the way. Finally were able to pull away in OT. The 80-72 victory on Friday night, snapped the Cardinals' 59-game home winning streak in the month of November.

San Diego

Toreros stunned Nevada on the road. USD loaded up on quality transfers and played an excellent game behind Terrell Brown. Brown’s seven blocks are the second-most in a game in USD history. The Toreros have 10 newcomers this season and are ready to make noise in the WCC.

Florida

Beat rival Florida State at home in Sunshine State Showdown. Played excellent second half defense. The victory snapped a string of seven years and seven painful losses against the Noles.

Wagner

The Seahwaks put together two stellar performances. Most notably pulling away with a 14-point road win at VCU. Seahwaks’ star Alex Morales, had 20 points and 11 rebounds to pace Wagner.

UC Davis

Two excellent guards (Ezra Manjon & Elijah Pepper) propelled an Aggies take down of Utah State in Logan. USU beat Richmond later in the week, making this even more impressive. UC Davis also beat EWU and gave HC Jim Les win #300.

Strongly Considered

UMASS-LOWELL

The UMass-Lowell Riverhawks went 2-0, highlighted by a major upset at Dayton in front of 13,000+ fans.

DUKE

Duke Blue Devils beat Kentucky, went 3-0. Paolo Banchero was dynamite.

CHATTANOOGA

The Chattanooga Mocs went into LMU on opening night, played a well-executed defensive scheme and didn't turn the ball over. Great win.

OHIO U.

Bobcats were incredible, beating two great programs in Belmont and Cleveland State with relative ease.

UCLA

UCLA Bruins passed its first major test vs. Villanova. Won the game without Cody Riley. Overtime game, that was tight throughout, high-level College Basketball.

HONORABLE MENTION

Nicholls The Colonels pulled off an opening night stunner, 62-58 at Northern Iowa.

BYU Battled San Diego State to the wire, protected home court with a key 66-60 victory. Alex Barcello was clutch.

New Mexico State NMSU was impressive in controlling UC Irvine on opening night. The Aggies showed they are back as the class of the WAC.

Miami-Ohio Veteran team took advantage of the opportunity, fought all the way back to beat Georgia Tech on the road late. Also blew out Lamar. 2-0 start.

Minnesota Not much was expected from the Gophers this year, a ton of new faces. That didn't stop them from winning the Asheville Championship.

Western Illinois WIU stunned Nebraska with Luka Barisic's deep three-pointer that gave Western a lead for good with 6.7 seconds remaining.

UCF Great start to the campaign, won at Miami over the weekend to continue to build more buzz about this team.

Virginia Tech Hokies played Navy on the road after Navy stunned Virginia. V-Tech did not mess around, beat Navy by 20 in an impressive game.

Kansas Took care of business against Michigan State. Looked the part of a #1 seed.

Iowa State Cyclones got the TJ Otzelberger era started off well. The 2-0 start includes a nice win over Oregon State.

UC Riverside Special shout-out to the Highlanders for their incredible 3/4 court shot to beat ASU. UCR did lose earlier in the week to SDSU.

UC San Diego Tritons won by double-digits at Cal and at home vs. George Washington. Impressive start for the second year D1 program.

Charleston Plowed through three games in their home tourney to kick-start the Pat Kelsey era at 3-0. Cougars win over Lipscomb was noteworthy.

San Jose State Won the season opener over CSUF on buzzer-beater. Tim Miles win #400.

Cal State Fullerton at San Jose State

San Jose State University

GAME NOTES - CSUF

• Dedrique Taylor is in his ninth year at Cal St. Fullerton, time flies! Big West Tourney Champs in 2018.

• Titans shot 31-59 (52.5%) from the field at Santa Clara.

• Preseason Big West Newcomer of the Year - A.J. Anoskie (TR from Tennessee), had 16 pts. and 13 rebs. in his CSUF debut. Expect him to have a major impact tonight.

• Vincent Lee got in a rhythm as well, scoring 18.

• Dante Maddox Jr. had 17 off the bench on 7-for-11 shooting
  
  

GAME NOTES - SJSU

• Alvaro Cardenas, frosh from Spain, is getting a lot of early buzz here.

• Omari Moore figures to be the Alpha on this squad. Moore tallied a double-double in the exhibition win over Cal State East Bay with 23 points and 13 rebounds

• Coach Miles goes for win #400 in his Spartan debut

• Intriguing transfers ready to make a splash for SJSU: Trey Anderson (via South Carolina), Shon Robinson (via Ole Miss), Ibrahima Diallo (via Ohio State), Tibet Gorener (via Arizona)

• The Spartans were picked 10th in the 2021-22 Mountain West Preseason Poll

• Majok Kuath (Injury) will miss the 2021-22 Season.
  
  

1st Half RECAP

Spartans came after CSUF right off the opening tip-off, building a quick 10-2 lead. The lead never really got tight the entire half, which completely took Cal State Fullerton out of their interior game strategy. Having to play catch-up from the onset meant that the Titans took a handful of jump shots and could not establish a sense of control. CSUF, to their credit, did mostly stick to their guns by taking 22 two’s and just five three’s.

A new era of San Jose State basketball is underway.

As for the Spartans, eight triples were made. It was a very fluid offense with crisp ball movement and several shooters. Caleb Simmons led the way with 10 points, followed by Trey Smith and Shon Robinson - who each had nine. Robinson impressed me with his athleticism, and there’s a lot to like about the Frosh Alvaro Cardenas, who was silky smooth running the point in limited minutes and also hit a three.

Halftime: San Jose State, 45, CSUF 34.

2nd Half RECAP

The Spartans continued to pour it on early in the half. After trading baskets with CSUF, Tibet Gorener, Alvaro Cardenas, and Trey Anderson hit consecutive triples to widen the Spartan lead to 61-47. Not too long after that CSUF Head Coach Dedrique Taylor made a crucial adjustment to switch to a four-guard lineup. It paid off for the Titans in spades. Latrell Whitesell and Dante Maddox, Jr. sparked a furious comeback that would cut the Spartan lead down to 73-70 with four and change remaining.

The Titans completed the comeback after a tough driving layup three-point play by Whitesell tied things up at 76. San Jose State had led for over 37 minutes and played brilliantly for most of the game, yet still found themselves in a tie game. The final 2:36 gave us back-to-back-to-back offensive fouls! Both teams played tight and struggled to generate crunch-time offense. That would set the stage for one final possession.

Spartans had the rock and rotated the ball around to ultimately take the last shot. With approximately five seconds remaining, Trey Anderson launched a three to take the lead - but drew iron. The rebound caromed directly into the hands of Trey Smith. Smith then quickly went into a fade-away jumper from about 8-feet away and less than a second left on the game clock. The ball goes in! Spartans win their opener. Tim Miles wins his 400th game and gets completely drenched by the team. A splendid first game at San Jose State.

FINAL: San Jose State 78, Cal State Fullerton 76.

POSTGAME NOTES
A very excited Tim Miles in the Postgame Press Conference. Also, listen for my question on Alvaro Cardenas around the four-minute mark:

• Shon Robinson scored a career-high 14 points, while Caleb Simmons added a career-best 11.

• Smith finished the game with 14 points and went 3-for-5 from behind the arc

• San José State shot 50 percent from behind the arc (14-for-28)

  • The Spartans connected on 10 or more 3-pointers in just four games last season.

• Wrightsell Jr. led the team with 17 points off the bench on 4-for-7 shooting while shooting 8-for-8 at the free-throw line. 

• Dante Maddox Jr. contributed off the bench with nine points on 3-for-5 from the field. 

• Four out of five Titans starters scored in double figures led by E.J. Anosike who scored 14 points, shooting an impressive 6-for-8 on the night. Vincent Lee and Damari Milstead added 12 points while Tray Maddox Jr. scored 11. 

Pac-12 Media Day 2021-22

San Francisco, CA

Welcome to the Bracketeer’s ongoing coverage of 2021-22 Pac-12 Media Day. I will update this post throughout the day to recap all 12 of the schools in the conference and any additional nuggets that I personally gather. Only four weeks until Tip-Off!

First: A visit with Andy Katz on Bracketology

Pac-12 in Order of Media Poll

1) UCLA
HC Mick Cronin
- Not affected by the pressure of expectations. Feels more pressure by living up to UCLA's historical precedent.
- One of the ways he stays focused is to consistently put the focus on his players. Both internal and external.
- Talked about the starting point in practice being so much higher this season. Praised the added intellectual wisdom that Myles Johnson brings.
- Discussed last season’s ending at great length. Said he continued to believe in his team despite the late struggles. Talked about the team needing a big win to see it for themselves. Discussed the Michigan State game as representing that moment during the First Four.
- Cited the loss at Oregon late last year as a make-up game they had to play without practicing. A covid test was a false positive. By the time the team found out, they had to get to the airport and fly to Eugene. UCLA still led in the second half of that game, before falling short.
- Also reviewed the inconsistent roster issues that plagued the Bruins most of last season. Having Juzang miss time, then losing Chris Smith right after. Also talked about Cody Riley being a warrior and playing through a foot injury that should have sidelined him for a month or longer.

PRESS CONFERENCE: https://pac-12.com/videos/2021-pac-12-mens-basketball-media-day-ucla-press-conference

2) Oregon
HC Dana Altman
- Does not know for sure who the Alpha will be this year. Comes down to who has the drive. Duarte and Pritchard were always the first people in the gym and the last ones to leave.
- In favor of NIL, wants to promote players. Aligns with Pac-12 values.
- Small ball lineups last year led to some real struggles against big teams. Altman believes he addressed this by getting N’Faly Dante back healthy, also thinks Nate Bittle will develop.
- Does not want to retire anytime soon. Doesn’t know what he would do with himself.
- On Quincy Guerrier - he is a prototypical fit defensively who can guard a lot of space.

PRESS CONFERENCE: https://pac-12.com/videos/2021-pac-12-mens-basketball-media-day-oregon-press-conference

3) USC
HC Andy Enfield
- USC's edge will come from experience (first seven guys in rotation are Jr. or Sr.’s)
- Roster provides flexibility with playing different styles and mixing tempo
- Staff will always coach to roster strengths regardless
-High on his wing players this season (Drew Peterson, Chevez Goodwin, Isaiah White namely)
- Credited his staff for finding players who consistently make their rosters more dynamic each year.
- Mentioned Joshua Morgan and Boubacar Coulibaly as counted on bigs.

PRESS CONFERENCE: https://pac-12.com/videos/pac-12-mens-basketball-media-day-usc-press-conference

T4) Arizona
HC Tommy Lloyd
- On taking over the highest-scoring team in the league: He loves it, would love to score over 90 PPG
- Tempo/Pace is key to create easy baskets fuels the system (sounds just like Gonzaga, no stunner there).
- The team is mastering the fundamentals of the system now, happy where team is at today - More packages to be put in - ISO's/Post pakages, etc. Asked to check with him in a month and see how he feels.
- A lot of conversation between Ben Mathurin and PJ Carlesimo during this time and it led to Coach Lloyd chiming in about how he looks up to international coaches and style of play. He also understands at Arizona there is an importance on taking homegrown talent. This will be a balance annually for him. This year’s team has eight international players and the rest are from the U.S.

PRESS CONFERENCE: https://pac-12.com/videos/pac-12-mens-basketball-media-day-arizona-press-conference

T4) Oregon State
HC Wayne Tinkle
- Discussed the fact that OSU has brought in some talent. Talked about having guys that really understood what put the Beavers in a position to make that run back, but he challenges them by asking, “are they going to feeling content, or are they going to thirst for more?”
- Pillars of the program have been enforced daily at practice. Leadership is required each day - "Accountability within."
- Last season's turning point occurred during the win at Stanford - Tinkle mentioned that they had to "Squashed the non-sense." And from there it really felt like a changed team.
- Discussed transfers that are now hungry to come in be a part of the success with the vets. So there’s been a little marking your territory for the vets in play now.
- Expectations for the team and goals stay in-house. Tinkle noted that it worked very well for them a season ago. Also acknowledged that being picked tied for 4th was a test for him, one year after being picked 12th by many of the same voters.
- Side Note: I planned to ask if Deshawn Davis is the best kept secret in the league right now. Sadly, we ran out of time.

PRESS CONFERENCE: https://pac-12.com/videos/2021-pac-12-mens-basketball-media-day-oregon-state-press-conference

6) Colorado
HC Tad Boyle
- Keeshawn Barthelemy had a great off-season. Stayed on campus, worked hard. Has improved a lot.
- KJ Simpson and Julian Hammond III are part of the mix at PG
- Tad made it perfectly clear: Most important metrics in the CU program are: FG% Defense & Rebounding margin
- Very stable leadership, led by Battey, gives him optimism for the upcoming year.
- Losing to Tennessee and Florida State last year taught the staff a lot about matchups. Admitted they were outclassed in those matchups and are implementing changes. (CU hosts Kansas and Tennessee this year for their marquee non-conference matchups).
- Eli Parquet takes defense personally. Takes a ton of pride in it. Tad says he is one of the best in the country at weak-side shot blocking.
- Acknowledged that Jabari Walker will be called upon to take a considerable step forward in leading the team in scoring production.

PRESS CONFERENCE: https://pac-12.com/videos/2021-pac-12-mens-basketball-media-day-colorado-press-conference

7) Arizona State
HC Bobby Hurley:
- D.J. Horne is his choice as the most under-the-radar player this season that nobody is talking about.
- Touched on a re-focused commitment to defensive-end. Talked a bit about Alonzo Gaffney's 7'3 wingspan and being a key stopper.
- Mentioned that Mo Jackson was MAC P.O.Y. last season, but did not comment on why he was left off the preseason all-conference teams or even appear on the honorable mention list.
- Recognized that last year’s team had difficulty sharing the basketball. Said this in a somewhat relieved manner - as if this has now been resolved.
- Marcus Bagley entered the portal to explore all options, decided to return once he realized ASU was still his top choice.
- Spoke highly about Luther Muhammed, looks ready to produce.
- Discussed using some bigger lineups to get more defensive stops, based on particular matchups. Said that we could see Marcus Bagley moved to the three in those scenarios and pair him with Kamani Lawerence and Alonzo Gaffney.

PRESS CONFERENCE: https://pac-12.com/videos/2021-pac-12-mens-basketball-media-day-arizona-state-press-conference

8) Washington State
HC Kyle Smith
- "Ty is a bucket." on Tyrell Roberts
- Mentioned that Ty (yes, he goes by Ty) Roberts was championship leader at the High School level when he first started recruiting him and played on a 30-1 D2 school. That winning mentality really convinced Coach Smith to bring him in.
- Ball pressure defense is a big focus. Named Noah Williams, Mouhamed Gueye, and Jefferson Koulibaly as primary examples. Will be a reoccurring theme for opposing teams.
- Talked about the relationship with NBA Africa program and connection to Efe. Those pipelines have opened doors for the WSU program.
- He thinks the three core bigs (Efe Abogidi, TJ Bamba, and Dishon Jackson) are poised to make a jump forward this season in development.

PRESS CONFERENCE: https://pac-12.com/videos/2021-pac-12-mens-basketball-media-day-washington-state-press-conference

9) Stanford
HC Jerod Hasse
- Defense will always be a high priority under Haase (#7 in 2020 AdjD, #28 in 2021)
- On disappointing finishes: Tries to remember how it was as a player and the emotions he used to go through. Talked a lot about Balance with Life and academics for the unique Stanford rigor.
- It was challenging to be in Santa Clara for a big chunk of the '21 season. Just a lot of inconsistencies daily and hard to get into a routine or for players to form bonds.

PRESS CONFERENCE: https://pac-12.com/videos/pac-12-mens-basketball-media-day-stanford-press-conference

10) Utah
HC Craig Smith
- Team has become stronger, more versatile, and improved movement since he got there. Pointed to the physiques of Battin and Carlson as prime examples.
- Spoke highly on David Jenkins, talked about losing to him in the Summit League title game (DJ had 29 as a member of South Dakota State vs. Craig Smith’s South Dakota Coyotes at the time).
- Praised Riley Battin for being the ultimate team guy since he got the job.
- Craig Smith is fired up to be at Utah, his energy was high throughout the day and said he’s enjoyed the short move to Salt Lake City.

PRESS CONFERENCE: https://pac-12.com/videos/2021-pac-12-mens-basketball-media-day-utah-press-conference

11) Washington
HC Mike Hopkins
- Re-committed to the Zone and prepared to "muck" it up with a mirage of different zone looks this season..
- Team now is equipped with great ballhandlers (Daejon Davis & Terrell Brown namely).
- Incoming transfers Emmitt Mathews, Terrell Brown and Daejon Davis are big believers in the zone principles and have felt the zone as opponents. Mathews was a member of West Virginia last season, who was eliminated from the NCAA 2nd Round vs. Syracuse and their trademark 2-3 zone defense.
- Wyking Jones hire as an Assistant Coach has already paid off early. Working with the bigs on a variety of areas, but none more important than rebounding.
- He also praised new Assisitant Coach Quincy Pondexter for coming in and bringing a ton of energy each day alongside fellow Assistant Coach, Will Conroy - “the Heart and Soul of the program.”
- Defending without fouling has been emphasized
- Being unselfish and maintaining toughness were highlighted.

PRESS CONFERENCE: https://pac-12.com/videos/2021-pac-12-mens-basketball-media-day-washington-press-conference

MORE WITH COACH HOPKINS (Audio Interview)

12) California
HC Mark Fox
- Genuine excitement in his voice about this team's prospects for this year due to age and experience.
- Roster construction challenges with Portal due to Cal's academic requirements.
- The team felt like they were right there after seeing peer teams succeed in NCAA's.
- Having an older team should help this team. Andre Kelly mentioned that when he was a younger player, it was difficult to manage emotions. With this older team in place, this shouldn’t be as much of a challenge.
- Coach expressed the importance of a good offense. The team is looking to be more effective in scoring and he expects an uptick in production this season, despite the loss of production leader, Matt Bradley.

PRESS CONFERENCE: https://pac-12.com/videos/2021-pac-12-mens-basketball-media-day-california-press-conference

The Final Tally (Media Poll)

TEAM (first-place votes) POINTS
1. UCLA (32) 404 points
2. Oregon (2) 373
3. USC 320
T4. Arizona 245
T4. Oregon State 245
6. Colorado 235
7. Arizona State 224
8. Washington State 221
9. Stanford 151
10. Utah 105
11. Washington 85
12. California 44

Preseason All-Conference Teams

First Team

Warith Alatishe, Sr., F, Oregon State
Marcus Bagley, So., F, Arizona State
Evan Battey Sr., F, Colorado
Tyger Campbell, Jr. G, UCLA
Jaime Jaquez Jr., Jr., G/F, UCLA
Johnny Juzang, Jr., G, UCLA
Bennedict Mathurin, So., G, Arizona
Isaiah Mobley Jr., F, USC
Will Richardson, Sr., G, Oregon
Noah Williams, Jr., G, Washington State

Second Team

Boogie Ellis, Jr., G, USC
Quincy Guerrier, Jr., F, Oregon
De'Vion Harmon Jr., G, Oregon
Jarod Lucas Jr., G, Oregon State
Azuolas Tubelis, So., F, Arizona

BRACKETEER.ORG Selections

Order of Finish (Went game-by-game)
1. UCLA
2. Oregon
3. Arizona
T4. Arizona State
T4. USC
T6. Oregon State
T6. Washington State
T6. Colorado
9. Utah
10. Washington
11. Stanford
12. California

All-Conference (10 players only)
Ben Mathurin, Arizona
Marcus Bagley, ASU
Mo Jackson, ASU
Jabari Walker, Colorado
De'Vion Harmon, Oregon
Will Richardson, Oregon
Jamie Jaquez, UCLA
Johnny Juzang, UCLA
Isaiah Mobley, USC
Noah Williams, WSU

Ryan Odom Seeks to Raise Utah State to New Heights

by Rocco Miller (@roccomiller8)

One of the most unsuspecting hires this offseason was the recent hire at Utah State and new Head Coach Ryan Odom. The pair came together in a mutually beneficial and meaningful way. For Utah State, they’ve built a winner in Logan for the past three seasons under recently departed Head Coach, Craig Smith (now at Utah). The Aggies finished each year (2019-2021) by qualifying or participating in the NCAA Tournament in each of said years (won the 2020 MWC Tournament, prior the NCAA’s being cancelled).

USU Athletic Director, John Hartwell, originally planned to leverage a search firm to find the right candidate for the program’s next head coach - but ditched the idea and went with a “lone wolf” approach, Hartwell said during yesterday’s introductory press conference. Hartwell had his own short list and prioritized Odom, without many knowing about his intentions publically.

For Coach Odom, the idea of taking the Utah State job had a lot of momentum at home. The former UMBC Head Coach recognized that he and his wife were married in the state of Utah and he also spent time there in a previous offseason with current Utah Jazz Assistant Coach and his mentor, Quinn Snyder. Odom also picked up quickly, that the USU athletic department has exceptional local support for all USU athletics. He recognized that USU was a big enough jump for him to feel like it was the right fit for him to take a program to the next level and the right fit for his blossoming coaching career path.

At UMBC, Ryan Odom was and still is adored. Many know Coach Odom as the brains behind the UMBC upset over top-seeded Virginia and the only sixteen-seed to ever beat a one-seed. What is mostly untold is the fact that he has been a consistent winner at a program that was basically running on empty before he took over. Odom has never finished below .500 in conference-play since taking over in 2016-17. Over the years, Ryan Odom has had a number of high profile job offers. Odom chose to wait for the right opportunity each time, and reinforced his commitment to UMBC. He was genuinely happy building the Retriever program.

So what was it about Utah State that finally got him to move? I joined yesterday’s press conference to dive in and learn more.

Utah State held a press conference on April 7th, 2021 to introduce Ryan Odom as new Men’s Head Basketball Coach.

Coach Odom is encouraged and enthused about a number of areas that Utah State brings to the table:

• Traditionally the Mountain West is seventh to ninth best conference in America (finished a disappointing 11th in 2021)

• Great athletics at Utah State

• Rich basketball tradition at USU

• Sold out Spectrum, Home Court advantage

• Strong desire to advance in the NCAA Tournament (USU has not made it past the first round since 2001). USU has eight consecutive exits in the Round of 64 (2003, ‘05, ‘06, ‘09, ‘10, ‘11, ‘19, ‘20, ‘21

• Quinn Snyder (currently with Utah Jazz) is his mentor

What type of strategy can we expect from Utah State teams going forward (in Coach Odom’s words)?

1. Focus on being strong both offensively and defensively from an efficiency standpoint

2. Balanced approach to using fouls. Do not foul a lot.

3. Fast style with multiple ball-handlers on the floor together.

WHAT WE LEARNED ABOUT ODOM’s STYLE AT UMBC:

- The Retrievers were stellar on defense. In conference play, they had the best defensive Free Throw rate in the league (25.9% of possessions). No surprise this is a key area for Odom in yesterday’s presser. UMBC also had the best 2-point % defense in the America East, making life difficult the most frequently for opponents in the paint.
- UMBC had an all-around efficient offense, ranking third in Adjusted Offensive Efficiency during conference play and second for the entire season. Led by two great contributors, 6-3 Junior RJ Eytle-Rock and 6-10 Senior Brandon Horvath. Eytle-Rock ranked in the top 100 nationally in getting to the free throw line.
- Aggies fans should keep their eyes open. Horvath is already in the transfer portal, looking for a home for one last season. Also, Dan Akin another Senior from UMBC, recently entered the portal. Overall, USU will be doing an appraisal of sorts on the existing roster left behind to see who is still a good fit moving forward. Several changes should be on the horizon as Coach Odom looks to fill his staff.

ODOM ON ANALYTICS:

- Full-time staff member will be solely focused on Analytics.
- Odom is open to innovative approaches. Mentioned they have tried doing a few video reviews during halftimes of games, and had tablets on their bench.
- A real focus goes into the Four Factors of the game: Effective FG%, Turnover rate, Offensive Rebounding rate, and Free Throw rate.
- Getting to the three-point line, scoring at the rim and getting to the foul line are the offensive areas of focus. Constantly will be reviewed and measured against.
- Defensively: limiting fouling as mentioned before, not allowing opponents to get great looks from distance, and preventing layup opportunities were the areas mentioned at the Press Conference.

In summary, Odom and Utah State appear to be genuinely all-in. This is an exciting time and this is a great hire is my belief for the Utah State program. However, there are clear challenges that the Mountain West brings. A higher caliber of basketball and deeper commitment to success. UNLV, San Jose State and New Mexico are all committing to building successful programs, in addition to San Diego State, Colorado State and Boise State who are all coming off of strong seasons. Coach Odom and his Aggies will need to win at close to a 70% clip to stay in the at-large bid discussion each year. Unquestionably, the Aggies will enjoy their tremendous home court advantage at 4,800 feet of elevation (ranked #7 in the nation per KenPom Home Court Advantage rankings). The formula is to be near-perfect at home, schedule well, and acquire key wins away from Logan. Can Coach Odom do it? I predict he will. We’ll see.

Bid Thief Report: 2021

What is a Bid Thief?
One of the several joys of doing Bracketology throughout Championship Week is the constant monitoring of the conference tournaments. More specifically the 10-12 tournaments that have at least one lock to make the field of 68 as an at-large. This opens up the possibility for another non-locked team to steal that league’s automatic bid by winning the conference tournament. More importantly, this takes a bid away from a projected at-large team. Such teams are commonly known as a bid thief. This season, we had the Atlantic 10 play early and that knocked us down a bit in leagues to monitor. The picture is pretty clear that the leagues most likely to have bid thieves (also known as bid stealers) are in this order for 2021:

Conference Liklihood Rankings for 2021

1. American

2. Big East

3. Mountain West

4. Pac-12

5. SEC

6. ACC

7. Big 12

8. B1G

That leaves us with just eight for this season. A longshot for Western Kentucky in Conference USA to recieve an at-large, so I did not include CUSA in the preview.

In 2020, the Mountain West Tournament was played early in March and Utah State went from a fringe bubble team to into the field. Sadly the 2020 NCAA’s never happened as we know. Can the Aggies repeat in 2021?

Way back in 2019, we witnessed four different bid thieves win their tournaments. A rather large amount. Saint Louis (A-10), Saint Mary’s (WCC), Murray State (OVC), and Oregon (Pac-12) would not have made the 2019 field without winning their respective conference tournaments. The overall annual average is nearly 2.4 bids stolen per year. You should come to expect two to three bids taken from each bracket you follow during the season. Here at Bracketeer.org, there is special attention placed on this part of the equation.

You will notice on all of the bracket projections on this website, there is a section at the top called “Bids Stolen.” Selection Sunday is right around the corner, just five days away. The major conference tournaments are getting underway now.

It is time for a full review of what is still out there to be potentially taken away from the pool of at-large bubble hopefuls. Conferences are listed in order of liklihood of a thief.

AMERICAN
Houston is in. Wichita State is projected to be the last team above the First Four.

Potential Thieves
Memphis is the team to watch here. The Tigers took Houston to the wire this past Sunday and have the athletes and to go win this tournament. Also the draw allows the Tigers to face Houston in the Semifinals, which would give them a shot a revenge. Following that up with a title win won’t be easy on the following day.

SMU So much potential for this talented group. The Mustangs only had one bad loss all season, home to Cincinnati and struggled through a lengthy pause to end the season. They enter the AAC Tournament without playing a game since February 8th. Still, Kendric Davis and co. have the talent to win this whole thing, will be interesting to see which players are available on Friday.

Cincinnati falls under the Darkhorse category most. The Bearcats need to beat both SMU and likely Wichita State to get to the title game. Cincy did lose to Vanderbilt last week and a run seems improbable.

UCF would need to play their best ball of the season to get past Memphis right now, and then there is Houston after that - I don’t see it happening.

The Rest South Florida, Tulsa, Tulane, ECU, Temple: Good luck!

BIG EAST
Villanova, Creighton and UConn are in. St. John’s, Xavier and Seton Hall are on the outside of the bubble, all three likely need a trip to the Tournament Final in order to be selected, or even strongly considered. Xavier would be the exception. Musketeers could get a win over Creighton in the Quarterfinal round, which would be significant.

Potential Thieves

St. John’s The list must start with the Johnnies, as they are essentially at home at MSG. The Red Storm just took down Seton Hall this past Saturday and will need to do that again in the quarterfinals. Then SJU would be paired with either Villanova or a cinderella story. This Nova squad is without Collin Gillespie and Justin Moore. This bodes very well for an upset. If SJU gets to the title game, the drama and stakes will be high on Saturday.

Seton Hall If you just read about St. John’s above, you see the same path here for the Hall. Three straight wins is all that separates the Pirates from stealing a bid from a bubble team.

Xavier Several forecasters still have the Musketeers in the field. Here at Bracketeer.org, we disagree with that liklihood. Xavier can make a statement by taking care of Butler and then also Creighton. If they do that, things look a bit brighter.

Providence Friars were a projected tournament team at the beginning of the season, and they are coming off a win over Villanova. Perhaps Coach Cooely and guys are up for another run at it?

Marquette/Georgetown winner: Winner of this one gets the aforementioned shorthnaded Villanova team. Decent chance at a stunner for either.

The Rest Butler, DePaul - Doesn’t feel like much of a run will happen, but crazier things have happened.

MOUNTAIN WEST
San Diego State is in. Colorado State and Boise State are projected to be in the First Four. Utah State is on the outside of the bubble, all three likely need a trip to the Tournament Final in order to be selected. This bracket creates some dramatic scenarios. Boise State needs to beat a Nevada team who swept them last month and CSU-USU are on a crash course for a crucial semifinal.

Utah State The Aggies are so close to selection, and a main reason why they aren’t projected to be included is due to their lack of road wins. Perhaps a semifinal win over Colorado State moves the needle just enough. Time will tell. USU can repeat as champs and take all of the guessing away, then turn the Selection Sunday very hot seat over conference rivals Colorado State and Boise State.

Nevada In the past few weeks this team has defeated Boise State twice and Colorado State. Playing great basketball. They also only need three wins. They play Boise State again in the quarterfinal round, and then likely San Diego State should they win.

UNLV Always have to mention the Rebels as they are the host. On the court, this team was smoked by Wyoming in the finale, so it is a longshot.

The Rest Fresno State, Wyoming - Could make noise. San Jose State, New Mexico, Air Force - Done.

SEC
Alabama, Arkansas, Tennessee, Missouri, LSU, Florida are locks. Ole Miss is our final team in the field, but in reality they still have plenty of work to do. We will include them in the report, since they are very much at risk overall.

Potential Thieves

Ole Miss If the Rebels just win the SEC Tournament our problems are resolved. Otherwise the Rebels almost certainly need to beat LSU on Friday. Before that can happen, Ole Miss needs to handle South Carolina. Frank Martin teams usually do not go away quietly in tournament settings.

Kentucky This is it for the Wildcats. Do they have a miracle run in them to save their season? I give them a small chance to pull it off, still a very talented group. Will need to beat Mississippi State and Alabama right out of the gate to make things interesting.

Mississippi State Same path as Kentucky, just not as much talent. I do not see four wins coming from this group in a four day span.

Georgia Bulldogs had Alabama on the ropes for a while last weekend, before letting it all slip away. If UGA can harness some of that prowess again, they could shake things up this week.

The Rest South Carolina, Vanderbilt and Texas A&M are longshots.

PAC-12
Oregon, Colorado, USC, are locks. UCLA is on the cusp, and needs a decent showing in Las Vegas to solidify an at-large. Stanford needs to win the whole tournament.

Potential Thieves

Stanford has been in turmoil late in the season. It has been unfortunate because this is an outstandingly talented squad. Injuries and a long season of travel have seemingly worn down this team. Let’s see if playing Cal in the opener wakes them up and sparks a run.

Oregon State Beavers are ranked seventh in our liklihood rankings. The main reason is they only need three wins. The challenge is tough however, opening against UCLA and then will likely face rival Oregon in a potential semifinal.

Utah Been good in flashes this season. Have not done a lot of damage outside of the mountains this season. Still some playmakers on this Utes team that could make things fun.

The Rest Arizona State and Washington State have shown they can hold their own at times, but both have been way too inconsistent to make a serious run I believe. Washington and Cal cannot be expected to even win more than one game. This league is mainly down to Oregon State or bust for a thief to occur.

ACC
Virginia, Florida State, Clemson, Virginia Tech and Georgia Tech are locks. Louisville is essentially there baring a ton of thieves this week.

Potential Thieves

Syracuse The Orange are creeping inch by inch toward the cut-line. Syracuse measures up well in most metrics when compared to other bubble teams. However, the resume lacks anything that impressive on the road, and thats a key issue. The Orange have a final chance to knock off both NC State and Virginia. Win those two games and I think Syracuse changes the landscape of their body of work. To be extra sure, they can just keep winning and steal the bid all together.

NC State Wolfpack have been playing their best basketball of the season, and that’s not great news for the Syracuse faithful. NC State is looking at the same path needing two wins minimum for serious consideration. Let’s see if the Pack stay hot.

Duke need to win five games, likely impossible. Especially considering the lack of defense lately.

The Rest Notre Dame, Wake Forest, Miami, and BC are very much longshots. Pittsburgh was already eliminated.

Highly Unlikely Bid Thief Conferences
Big 12, Big Ten

Potential Thieves

TCU Swept Oklahoma State this season, but had no such success or luck against the other six tournament caliber squads. Deep longshot here.

Indiana Writing has been on the wall for a while. The Hoosiers suddenly making a run this weekend from the 10-seed position certainly feels unrealistic.

The Rest Kansas State has way too big of a mountain to climb. Iowa State is toast. Penn State leads the rest of the B1G options, but they all have the impossible task of needing five wins against superior competition.

Summary
It is difficult to envision any of these teams winning their tournaments this week and pehaps none will. But do we ever see these things coming? Usually not.

Here is a complete Bid Thief Board with Thief Liklihood Rankings that will be tracked and updated this week:

TOP 20 in left two columns. Teams on far right will be in play in order of bids stolen.

Bracket Watch February 27-28, 2021

What a crazy week this was already. Ohio State, Illinois, Alabama, Iowa and several other top teams have already suffered a loss. We suddenly have a Michigan State team who came back to life, and we have a resurgent St. Bonaventure team who is climbing up to levels that would make it easy for the committee to select them. The temperture only increases from here, folks. Leagues like the A10, MVC, WCC and others will wrap up their regular season in the coming days. Championship Week already commenced with the opening round of the Horizon League. On Saturday we welcome the America East and Big South opening round games. A lot happening across the 31-conference landscape.

There are always matchups that stand out above the rest each week. Now it’s crunch time. Everyone should be paying attention to these games this weekend as they will have likely the biggest impact to the next bracket projection. If you are new to this column, we prefer to break this into three categories: Heavyweight games (typically teams impacting the Top 16), Conference Leader Games and Bubble Games. Final thought for this week: The Heavyweight games are so good this weekend that Texas-Texas Tech and LSU-Arkansas missed the cut. I will add, LSU really needs a road win over a tournament team to get above an eight-seed. Let’s see if the Tigers can do it. In the mean time, check out the highlights from round one of Boise State at San Diego State, an overtime thriller!

HEAVYWEIGHT GAMES

5. Oklahoma State at Oklahoma, Saturday 3PM ET ABC
Bedlam round one is here. The Big XII is not like the Mountain West or Missouri Valley with back-to-back scheduling formats this season, but it played out this way due to make-up games/rescheduling. Game two will happen on Monday in Stillwater. In round one, its an opportunity for the Cowboys to add a prime road win over their rival. Oklahoma State is stuck in the mess of the 15-24 range of the seed list today. For the Sooners, this is a chance to get right back on the horse after slipping up at Kansas State earlier this week.

4. Florida State at North Carolina, Saturday 4PM ET ESPN
Hard to find a more dominant team lately than Florida State. The Seminoles have tremendous length and athleticsm to really put the clamps on opposing offenses. Well, this matchup is a potential clash of the bigs, as UNC is one of the few teams out there that can size up with the Noles. For the Tar Heels, who are coming off a very disappointing home loss against Marquette, a win here would help everyone forget about what happened on Wednesday and keep them safely above the bracket cut-line.

3. Illinois at Wisconsin, Saturday 2PM ET ESPN
The Badgers were beaten badly in the first matchup. Furthermore, this Wisconsin team still does not have a win against a team currently seeded higher than eight, so they can really use an elite win here to anchor off of to position themselves for a run at a protected seed. For Illinois, they are chasing the one-seed line and another high-caliber road win like this helps a lot. Ayo Dosunmu has a broken nose, I presume he will play - but how effectively?

2. Iowa at Ohio State, Sunday 4PM ET CBS
First meeting of the season for these two. Interestingly, both enter this one coming off of losses to Michigan schools. Iowa comes in after being thoroughly beaten by Michigan. The Hawkeyes are currently on the two/three seed cut-off and a win likely makes them a two-seed again. Ohio State comes in off a loss to Michigan State in which HC Chris Holtmann was ejected late. Buckeyes will want a better performance and may need it to remain a projected one-seed.

1. Baylor at Kansas, Saturday 8PM ET ESPN
The Bears put their undefeated record on the line tonight in Lawrence. Baylor finally returned to action this past Tuesday, and had a lot of issues vs. Iowa State in a narrow victory. Jonathan Tchamwa Tchatchoua was still recovering from Covid earlier this week, unknown yet if he’ll be available. Kansas has been playing their best basketball of the season, winning five of their past six. Jayhawks may be a little extra hungry for two reasons: Be the first to knock off Baylor, and KU is coming off a tough OT loss against Texas.

CONFERENCE LEADER GAMES

5. Summit: North Dakota State at South Dakota x2, Saturday 4:30PM ET/Sunday 4:30PM ET ESPN3
Behind the tutelage of Todd Lee, this USD Coyotes season has been a roaring success. The Coyotes will likely need to sweep the third-place Bison on this final weekend of Summit League play to lock up the top-seed in the tournament. Sharpshooter A.J. Plitzuweit and Stanley Umede have been a lethal combo. For the Bison, a sweep over South Dakota would guarantee them at least a second-place finish. The other team in the mix is South Dakota State, who beat Kansas City last night. Jackrabbits have just one more game to go and will sit back and scoreboard watch this vital NDSU-USD series, should be a great one.

4. Pac-12: UCLA at Colorado Saturday 10PM ET ESPN2
Bruins just took over first place late on Thursday, following the USC loss to this Colorado team. Now it’s UCLA’s turn to try and crack the code in Boulder. It’s a tall order, Colorado is 10-1 at home this year and traditionally has one of the biggest home-court advantages in the country due to altitude. The Buffs have been stuck in the seven-seed range for a while, this another opportunity to maybe move up the board. In the event of a UCLA upset win, it would not only keep the Bruins in first, it also does wonders for their resume.

3. SoCon: Furman at Wofford, Saturday 7PM ET ESPN+
Two bitter rivals with so much at stake today as the Paladins visit Spartanburg. For Furman it’s simple, a win over Wofford would be their first Southern Conference regular season title since 2016-17 and their first outright title since the 1979-80 season. Wofford comes in with the opportunity to spoil the party for their rival, but also earn at least a co-championship on their senior day. Emotions will be running high in this one.

2. ASUN: Liberty at Bellarmine, Saturday Noon ET ESPNU
Good for the Atlantic Sun Conference. Good on them for making this a reality. The conference first of all worked with both programs to ensure this game was on the schedule after previous cancelations. The league also made the move to make at a winner take all - built for television game instead of a two-game series, which could’ve left us in a co-champs situation. Bellarmine is one of the great stories of this season. The Knights transitioned this year to D1, and have been on fire in league play. After an 0-2 start, they are now 10-2. Tied with league favorites, Liberty. This game will mean the pinnacle for the Knights’ season and they host it.

1. Mountain West: Boise State at San Diego State, Saturday 4PM ET CBS Sports Network
We teased you earlier, you had to know this was coming - right? Two tournament hopefuls Boise State and SDSU are playing for first place again this afternoon in San Diego. If this is anything like the first game, buckle up. Boise State will be looking to earn a split and avoid the possibility of being exluded from the tournament. Broncos were already swept earlier this month at Nevada, they do not have as much margin for error as the Aztecs.

BUBBLE GAMES

5. VCU at Davidson, Saturday 2PM ET ESPNU
Davidson is hanging by a thread to get a tournament at-large bid. Wildcats were just swept by St. Bonaventure and the opportunity may already be gone. At minimum, a home win in the finale against one of the top A-10 teams in VCU, would be a major confidence boost heading into the A10 Tournament. VCU looks to add another quality road win to their resume. A loss for the Rams brings them under further evaluation scrutiny, which is not ideal.

4. Michigan at Indiana (Bubble), Saturday Noon ET FOX
Earlier this week, Indiana fell out of the field entirely. This is an easier decision for the committee when Indiana or any team is just a game above .500 or at .500. Today, Indiana comes in at 12-11 with this major opportunity against Michigan in front of them. On the plus side, the Hoosiers have a sweep of Iowa, which is a positive outlier in their favor. It comes down to winning games now. It starts or stops with the Michigan game today.

3. Creighton at Xavier (Bubble), Saturday 5PM ET FOX
Xavier is free-falling like no other lately. You ave to feel for this Musketeer program, who just has not returned to the same level of play since returning from an activity pause due to Covid-19. In losing three of their last four, Xavier has not looked very competitive in the losses. In comes a streaking Creighton team with its sights on a protected seed. Big chance to turn it around today for the Musketeers, they are currently my first “NCAA Alternate team”.

2. Louisville at Duke, Saturday 6PM ET ESPN
This is a quite the bubble scenario. Duke has everyone’s attention again after beating Virginia last week and blowing out Syracuse this week. The Blue Devils are still needing to pick up a quality road win, they’ll have to wait til next week. The Louisville game provides Duke the opportunity to beat another tourney-caliber team and leave less doubt about if they belong in the field. Louisville finds themselves also quickly slipping on the bubble after inconsistent play all year, and a lack of results away from the KFC Yum! Center. A win in Cameron today would really calm the doubters and keep them solidly in the projected field.

1. Michigan State at Maryland, Sunday 2PM CBS
Two of the wilder bubble case studies in recent memory will collide on Sunday in College Park. Both teams are playing their best basketball as well, which has to make this game appealing even to the casual fan. The Terps just handled Rutgers on the road and have won four-straight. Michigan State comes in on cloud nine. They’ve had an unbelievable week as mentioned earlier. Spartans are back in the picture, but they’ll need to stay locked in for this tough road game. Should be a great contest.

Enjoy the action this weekend everyone!
~Rocco Miller

Bracket Watch - February 15-18, 2021

This past weekend was productive for a few bubble teams of the 2021 NCAA Tournament. Particularly in the SEC where Arkansas picked up its best win of the season so far with an overtime victory at Missouri, and LSU took down Tennessee at home for its best win of the season. The Valley teams split with each other, and that keeps Drake and Loyola-Chicago both in the thick of the at-large bid conversation. And Western Kentucky handled their business by sweeping a fiesty Rice team.

As for the heavyweights, Michigan came back off pause and won after being down by as many as 14. Baylor extended its pause and it remains to be seen how many or if key games need to be made up. Ohio State is still red-hot. Oklahoma outlasted West Virginia in a classic 2OT thriller. And we had confirmation from the Selection Committee on Saturday that the Top 16 here at Bracketeer.org were the same 16 they had. More on that in tomorrow’s bracket post. Stay tuned!

There are a number of matchups moving forward that will have a big impact on the bracket both for those closer to the top of the field and those that are fighting their way into consideration as bubble teams. Looking to the matchups early this week. There are a few that stand out, and everyone should be paying attention. If you are new to this column, we prefer to break this into three categories: Heavyweight games (typically teams impacting the Top 16), Conference Leader Games and Bubble Games.

BIG GAME ON BIG MONDAY!
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— Virginia Men's Basketball (@UVAMensHoops) February 15, 2021

HEAVYWEIGHT GAMES

5. Florida at Arkansas, Tuesday 7PM ET ESPN2
The Hogs are hot, and have to be feeling confident after the big win in Columbia over the weekend. Arkansas finally nabbed their first win over a tournament-caliber opponent and did it on the road against a Top-16 team. That’s what the doctor ordered. As for the Gators, they have been off since February 3rd when they were upset by South Carolina. Can the Gators make it to Fayetteville full strength and ready for a resume boosting road win? We shall see.

4. Rutgers at Michigan, Thursday 9PM ET FS1
Wolverines are finally back on the court, and they returned with a great final stretch at Wisconsin to win a key road game. Important to remember that the Wolverines are in a tough stretch now and play at Ohio State on Saturday. Is this is a trap game against a tough Rutgers team?

3. Iowa at Wisconsin, Thursday 7PM ET ESPN
First of two meetings between these two rivals. This year’s series may be the showcase perhaps of any season? In any event, both schools can improve their resume with a key win here. Intrguing battle when Iowa has the ball. The Wisconsin D is a top-10 defense in efficiency and Iowa’s Offense is the best in the game, efficiency wise.

2. Texas at Oklahoma, Wednesday 9PM ET ESPN
This games was moved from Tuesday to Wednesday due to bad weather. Thankfully it is on the schedule still. We have two bitter rivals here and not many teams are hotter than the Sooners. OU is coming off a double OT win at West Virginia. The Horns are looking to avenge a prior one-point defeat to the Sooners back on January 26th.

1. Virginia at Florida State, Today 7PM ET ESPN
Tonight is the night! Yes, Florida State is back on the court after surviving overtime to beat Wake Forest on Saturday. Virginia is coming in hot, winners of four straight and 11 of their last 12. Last season, these teams played a couple of low scoring games (61-56 and 54-50), favoring UVA’s pace. I’d expect that type of game tonight. Whoever gets this victory will solidify their profile. UVA looking to get on the Two-seed line, FSU has a chance to get up to the four-seed line.

CONFERENCE LEADER GAMES

5. SWAC: Prairie View A&M at Texas Southern, Thursday 9PM ET ESPNU
In the past couple of seasons, these have been the two programs at the top of the SWAC and it is typically a treat to see them get after each other in a growing rivalry. This season Jackson State is spoiling the party, still undefeated. But PVAMU is also 6-0 and looking to keep pace. The Tigers come in 4-2 and a win Thursday keeps hope alive for a SWAC title. Panthers won the first meeting, 71-67.

4. America East: Vermont at UMBC Thursday 7PM ET ESPNU
The Retrievers have asserted themselves this season as a bonafide contender in America East’s regular season race. Typically this league belongs to Vermont in recent years, and the race fades away early. Not so much this season. UMBC at 9-3 has a slight edge over 8-3 Vermont. Retrievers host the first of two on Thursday night on National television. Should be a great battle.

3. Mountain West: Utah State at Boise State, Wednesday 9PM ET CBS Sports Network
After having last week off, Utah State will need to bring their A-game to Boise. This is the first of two games of the series. Boise State really struggled with UNLV last week, but dodged a bullet by winning by two in the second game. For the league Standings, the Aggies hold a game advantage in the loss column. A sweep in Boise could go a long way to winning the league title, conversely a Boise State sweep gives them control back.

2. American: Houston at Wichita State, Thursday 7PM ET ESPN or ESPN2
The league championship may hang in the balance here. Even more key for Wichita State is this may very well be their final chance at an at-large bid. Currently the Shockers are about the ninth team out and will not get many more opportunities before Championship Week. For Houston, this is a chance to get their swagger back and be firm on the two-seed line, plus have a sweep over the Shockers and a grip on the AAC crown.

1. Atlantic 10: VCU at Richmond, Wednesday 7PM ET CBS Sports Network
The battle of Richmond doesn’t get much bigger than this year’s version. VCU has just claimed the first-place lead after knocking off Saint Bonaventure. Richmond has been shutdown, but got a tune up win yesterday over non-D1 St. Mary’s. The Spiders are on the cusp of being a tournament team, and this is massive for those hopes. A win for Richmond (4-2) would also keep them in the A10 Title chase.

BUBBLE GAMES

5. Arizona at UCLA (Bubble), Thursday 9PM ET ESPN or ESPN2
UCLA had a rollercoaster week last week at the Washington schools. A lethargic loss at Washington State and a narrow win at Washington left many wondering about the Bruins outlook ahead. A deeper look under the hood will reveal that UCLA has just a 3-5 record against the top two quadrants with a 48th ranked NET. Thin ice status is here for the Bruins and Sean Miller’s Arizona program would love to spoil it further.

4. Xavier at St. John’s (Bubble), Tuesday 8:30PM ET FS1
The Musketeers are back on the court, that’s the good news. The bad news is Xavier did not look great in their return over the weekend. A home loss to UConn that included a second half meltdown of sorts. St. John’s is the bubble team today, but that can soon be Xavier if they don’t solidify their resume with a quality road win. The Johnnies remain hungry after Butler snapped their six-game win streak last week. SJU currently is within a few spots of the cut-line and this is a home game they absolutely need.

3. Colorado at Oregon (Bubble), Thursday 11PM ET ESPN2
Perhaps a Bill Walton game here? We shall see. Either way, this is a key game for both clubs. Oregon played really well to get a desert road sweep over the Arizona schools last week and don’t want to give one back on their home court. Colorado was just upended by Cal and I’m sure the Buffs are eager to right the ship here in another Pacific Coast road swing.

2. Minnesota at Indiana, Wednesday 9PM ET Big Ten Network
This is a quite the bubble scenario. Both the Gophers and Hoosiers are in the field today. However, both resumes have flaws. Lets start with Minnesota, who is 0-7 in road games. Gophers really could use a road win to feel great about their chances of being selected and only two road games are left! This one with IU and a game near the finish at Penn State. Key chance to lock themselves in here. As for Indiana, they are doing their best to stay above water, aka .500. The sweep over Iowa carries a lot of weight but if Indiana can’t protect home court they will lose their grip on a winning season and that would likely cost them a bid.

1. LSU at Ole Miss, Thursday 5PM SEC Network
These two teams come in riding high. The host Rebels, are playing their best basketball of the season and are winners of their past four contests (including wins over Tennessee and Mizzou). LSU just took down Tennessee themselves on Saturday evening in what may have been their top performance of the year. So this should be a high-quality game, we hope. Tigers are pretty comfortably in the field now, yet the Rebels are still on the periphery. Perhaps an Ole Miss win will be enough to get them into the projected field by this weekend.

Enjoy the action this week everyone!
~Rocco Miller

Weekend Bracket Watch - February 5-7

Coming on the heels of a wild week of upsets, we enter the first weekend of February. The bracket picture has suddenly become less clear than any point of the season. So what does that mean? We need more games! Fortunately, we do have quite a few key matchups coming this weekend on paper. I will break those down for you today. Also, don’t be suprised to see a few more shocking upsets, as we did on Wednesday.

The final tally. Staggering.

Remove the Bama-LSU game: The other eight teams lost to St. John's, East Carolina, Georgetown, Pitt, South Carolina, TCU, La Salle, and VMI. #collegehoops #BracketWatch pic.twitter.com/ALN1Uj8Nxh

— Rocco Miller (@roccomiller8) February 4, 2021

Looking ahead to the busy weekend, I added a few thoughts on the most important matchups as it pertains to bracket forecasting. These are most effictively done in three categories.

• Heavyweight games: Games that will impact the top 16 teams on the seed list. Better known as protected seeds.

• Bubble games: Games that will most influence teams inside or outside of the bubble.

• Conference Leader games: The opportunity for the lead in any given league to change hands.

HEAVYWEIGHT GAMES

5. Iowa at Indiana, Sunday Noon ET FOX
Hawkeyes are the focus here. After suffering another heavyweight loss at the hands of Ohio State last night, they are increasingly under the microscope. Particularly the defense, who has dropped significantly to #135 in Adj. Defensive Efficiency per Ken Pomeroy. The Hoosiers put the clamps on Iowa’s vaunted offense the first time around, can they do it again? IU is in bubble trouble and can really use the victory.

4. Kansas at West Virginina, Saturday 2PM ET CBS
Two of the Big 12 powers that are trending in the wrong direction, collide tomorrow. For the winner, it will be a great springboard into the final monthe of the regular season. For the losing side, it will create further questions than answers. KU comes in a fringe 5/6 seed and WVU enters on the 4/5-seed fringe.

3. Texas at Oklahoma State, Saturday 3PM ET ABC
Longhorns head to Stillwater licking their wounds a bit. Texas was beaten by Baylor on Monday in a game that got away from them late. On the bright side, the Horns are 5-0 on the road this year. It currently serves as an impressive outlier on their resume. To keep that going, Texas needs to beat a hungry Oklahoma State team. Cowboys are also coming off a loss, at TCU on Wednesday. Adding to the Pokes motivation is the revenge factor (Texas nipped Oklahoma State, 77-74 on 12/20).

2. Wisconsin at Illinois, Saturday 2:30PM ET FOX
The Illini come in as the hotter team, winners of three in a row. The Illini are teedering on the 2/3-seed line coming in, while Wisconsin isn’t far behind. This is the first of two scheduled meetings between the two heavyweights. For the Badgers, a major road win opportunity here which would really improve their already strong resume.

1. Alabama at Missouri, Saturday Noon ET ESPN
Two straight weeks that the Tide are in our feature game of the weekend and two straight weeks at the Noon EST slot on ESPN. Bama fans hope this one goes more successfully, as last week they fell short at Oklahoma. Mizzou is a team with a stellar resume and a ton of doubters. Would a win over Alabama silence the critics once and for all? For Bama, this road win would potentially push them into a one-seed position sooner than later.

CONFERENCE LEADER GAMES

5. Southland: Nicholls State at Sam Houston State, Saturday 6PM ET ESPN+
Sam Houston State and Nicholls are two of the four teams logjammed with one-loss at the top of the Southland Standings. The Colonels got a blessing from the scheduling gods and do not play SFA or Abilene Christian this year. So this game looms large, especially for Nicholls, to take control of the conference race.

4. Summit: South Dakota at South Dakota State x2 Friday 8:30PM ET ESPN3/Saturday 8:30PM ET ESPN3
A showdown series in the Summit League. Coyotes have kicked the rust off a 1-6 start to the season to get off to a red-hot 8-0 start in league. The Jackrabbits have big non-conference wins (Utah State, Iowa State, Bradley), but an unfortunate program shutdown has limited them in conference to a 4-0 record. If history teaches us anything, these two teams will really get after each other this weekend. Great viewing ahead here.

3. Big Sky: Montana State at Weber State Saturday 2PM ET
Weber State put up 96 points in game one last night and handed the Bobcats their first loss in Big Sky play. That leads us to an important game two. A Weber sweep would create a 5-time race for the league, whereas a Bobcat win would keep them in control of the conference.

2. SoCon: Wofford at Furman, Saturday 6PM ET ESPN+
This rivalry is one of the best kept secrets in the country. The two schools have a strong distaste for one another. The game should be very intense. The Terriers and Paladins are two of the schools with two losses in the highly competitive SoCon. The winner stays in control of their destiny, while the loser will need help.

1. Pac-12: UCLA at USC, Saturday 10PM ET ESPN
The battle for Los Angelese takes on additional significance this time around. The Bruins (8-1) and Trojans (7-2) are separted by a single game and the winner has control of the league title race. Also an important win will be added to the resume of the winning team.

BUBBLE GAMES

5. St. John’s at Providence, Saturday 2PM ET FS1
The Johnnies are enfuego! Five in a row and win over Villanova on Wednesday. A road win at Providence would begin to tip the scales toward a favorable inclusion to the next bracket. As for the Friars, they took a tough loss to Seton Hall this week and need to start racking up wins. They really need this one.

4. Maryland at Penn State, Friday 7PM ET FS1
Both the Terps and the Nittany Lions share the same challenge: getting above .500 by a couple of games vs. D1 competition. Maryland is closer, just a win away from NCAA tournament consideration and Penn State is three wins away. PSU however has the higher Ken Pomeroy rating today, so this is an intriguing one. The losing team will have a lot of work ahead to get into the tourney picture.

3. North Carolina at Duke, Sunday 6PM ET ESPN
Incredibly bizarre to be breaking this one down in the bubble watch section! I think we know what’s at stake here for Duke. They need wins, and probably a cluster of them. No better way to get rolling than against your rival. UNC can add another quality road win should they pull off the win. Expect some drama as always in this one.

2. St. Bonaventure at Saint Louis, Saturday 2PM ET CBS Sports Network
Fitting that these two matchup. These are two of the toughest teams to understand, thanks to lengthy program shutdowns. Both programs have promising talent and the Bonnies have only lost once. Bonnies can solidify their grip on first place and a tournament profile with a win. For the Billekins, they need to bounce back desperately after disappointing losses to Dayton and La Salle.

1. Seton Hall at UConn, Saturday Noon FOX
UConn finally returns to the court tomorrow. After 11 days off, will be interesting to see how ready they are for a hungry Pirates team coming off an impressive win at Providence. Neither team is on solid ground right now for making the tournament, creating a quintessential bubble matchup.

Enjoy the weekend everyone!
~Rocco Miller

Weekend Bracket Watch - January 29-31

A shortened season filled with spontaneous program shutdowns tells us one key point: each individual game has more weight this season to a program’s resume than ever before. This Sunday will mark the end of January. We will have conference tournaments starting in late February. That doesn’t leave a lot of time left for resume building opportunities. With that said, be sure to keep your eye tonight on Michigan State at Rutgers, Stanford at Arizona and Memphis at SMU.

Looking ahead to the much busier weekend, I added a few thoughts on the most important matchups as it pertains to bracket forecasting. These are most effictively done in three categories.

• Heavyweight games: Games that will impact the top 16 teams on the seed list. Better known as protected seeds.

• Bubble games: Games that will most influence teams inside or outside of the bubble.

• Conference Leader games: The opportunity for the lead in any given league to change hands.

HEAVYWEIGHT GAMES

5. Michigan State at Ohio State, Sunday 1PM ET CBS
Spartans are jumping straight into the fire following a 20-day absence. A team who needs wins and road wins, gets a major chance on Sunday. For Ohio State, another quality win keeps them trending up with a path to a #2-seed.

4. Virginia at Virginia Tech, Saturday 6PM ET ACC Network
Hokies have had this one circled all offseason. Helping matters for Virginia Tech was an impressive performance on Wednesday at Notre Dame. However, UVA comes in red-hot themselves and winners of seven straight. Much like Ohio State, the Cavs can make a push for a #2-seed with another quality road win.

3. Kansas at Tennessee, Saturday 6PM ET ESPN
Both teams are sitting in my 3rd tier. Kansas can add a second big road win (already won at Texas Tech), which would give them likely enough clout to be a projected 3-seed again. Tennessee’s quality of play has dropped in their past three outings, this is an opportunity to create a springboard of momentum heading into the critical month of February and solidify the resume.

2. Iowa at Illinois, Friday 9PM ET FS1
Overall, this is a B1G powerhouse matchup. Two teams in the top seven of the NET rankings square off in Champaign. Both still have plenty of work to do. Iowa has a realistic shot at getting into a #1-seed by the end of the year. Hawkeyes need to shake off their loss to Indiana and get a big road win like this to make that a reality. Illinois is a team with a very high ceiling this season, but are a disappointing 1-4 in Q1 games. If the Illini want to be in strong position to make the Final Four, they need to show they can beat the Iowa’s of the CBB world.

1. Alabama at Oklahoma, Saturday Noon ET ESPN
The Big XII-SEC Challenge pairings were announced during preseason. Had I told you then that the Tide and Sooners would be in the most impactful game, you likely would’ve laughed at me. Heck, even if I told you that in December, same laugh. Well, here we are. The Tide are on a 10-game win streak and the Sooners have won four straight including the past two over Kansas and Texas. Something has to give on Saturday.

Alabama/Oklahoma are on powerful win-streaks and on a collision course Saturday afternoon in Norman.

CONFERENCE LEADER GAMES

5. SWAC: Alabama A&M at Prairie View A&M, Saturday 4PM ET
AAMU is one of the surprise unbeatens in College Hoops. Bulldogs are 4-0 and now 2-0 in SWAC play following a lenghty program shutdown. PVAMU might be the favorite to win the league, and the game will be played in Prairie View. Let’s hope for a tight battle, it would be great for the SWAC if AAMU can compete with the top of the league.

4. Sun Belt: Louisiana at Texas State x2 Friday 5PM ET ESPN+/Saturday 5PM ET ESPN+
Sun Belt was split into two divisions - East and West to help limit travel. This is now the second series between the Bobcats and Cajuns. The Cajuns are the only team thus far to knock off current Sun Belt leader Texas State (5-1) in league play. Two more battles coming up this weekend in San Marcos.

3. WAC: New Mexico State at Grand Canyon x2 Friday 9PM ET, Saturday 9PM ET
So many storylines, I don’t know where to begin. NMSU has had a nightmare campaign with three different shutdowns and not being permitted to play in their own state. The Aggies only managed to play one D1 game thus far, an unfortunate loss to CS-Northridge. This is a major trash-talking rivalry on the West Coast, that the Aggies have complete ownage over the Lopes throughout GCU’s short D1 history. New GCU Head Coach Bryce Drew has pieced together a formaidable roster. Is this the year the Lopes finally break through and make it a true rivalry? We will learn quite a bit in these two games.

2. Southland: Sam Houston State at Stephen F. Austin, Saturday 4PM ET ESPNU
Bearkats have won 10 straight including a showdown victory recently over fellow title contender, Abilene Christian. Now, SHSU has to go on the road to beat perennial Southland powerhouse Stephen F. Austin. SFA is likely to serve their NCAA ban this season, yet that also would make games like this even bigger. It certainly won’t be easy for SHSU, figures to be intense in Nacogdoches on Saturday.

1. Mountain West: Boise State at Colorado State, Friday 11PM ET FS1
A late night, Friday night treat in the Mountain West. Both of these teams are not only fighting for the MWC regular season crown, but also potential at-large bids. CSU stunned the Broncos on Wednesday in a 22-point statement win. Should be much closer in round two.

BUBBLE GAMES

5. Arkansas (Bubble) at Oklahoma State, Saturday 4PM ET ESPN2
Arkansas has climbed up to #28 in NET and are playing efficient basketball. Their resume could still use a bump. Great opportunity here on the road against a tough Oklahoma State squad.

4. Stanford (Bubble) at Arizona State, Saturday 10PM ET ESPN2
Stanford’s win over UCLA last week gave the Cardinal a bit of room to breathe. But here they are this weekend on the always rough desert swing. To make matters more risky, ASU is currently 4-8. A loss to this team would not reflect well for Stanford.

3. Loyola-Chicago at Missouri State, Sunday 3PM ET CBS Sports Network
Loyola-Chicago is skyrocketing up the NET rankings. Missouri State just lost two tight battles against 15-0 Drake. This sets up for a crucial 2-game battle in Springfield. This opener on Sunday will set the tone for if Missouri State can hang in the at-large picture long-term. It will also serve as a fringe Q1/Q2 road opportunity for the Ramblers.

2. Villanova at Seton Hall (Bubble), Saturday 3:30PM ET FOX
For a regular season game, it doesn’t get much bigger than this for the Hall. After Wednesday’s brutal loss vs. Creighton and a 2-pont loss to Villanova last week - this win became paramount. The Pirates already have seven losses and can’t afford to keep letting them pile up. Besides, a win over the Wildcats would do wonders for their tourney hopes.

1. Saint Louis at Richmond, Friday 6:30PM ET ESPN2
This has suddenly shaped up to be quite the bubble matchup. SLU finally returned to action earlier this week. That came along with some rust in a tough home loss to Dayton. The Billikens now are 7-2 and do not have a significant road win. Putting them immediately in the large group of bubble teams. Speaking of, Richmond keeps hanging around the bubble themselves. Despite bad losses to La Salle and Hofstra, the Spiders do have two Q1 wins right now and that starts to stand out in current bubble comparison exercises. Big game all-around.

Enjoy the weekend everyone!
~Rocco Miller

Team of the Week Awards: Jan. 18-24, 2021

College Basketball Teams of the Week – Week 8 (January 18-24, 2021)

Missouri - Regardless of Mizzou’s glowing resume heading into the week, there were skeptics everywhere about this team and how good they actually are. The Tigers are not a metrics darling, they were near 40th in KenPom a week ago, for example. Additionally, the Tigers were picked anywhere from ninth to thirteenth in the preseason SEC rankings, depending on your publication of choice (I had them tenth). Head Coach Cuonzo Martin, his staff and his players have no control over such things. They can only prep for the next opponent and be ready to deliver on gamedays. At 8-2 with wins over Illinois, Oregon, at Arkansas, and at Wichita State in hand, Mizzou’s resume was already great given where we are at this point in the season. Tigers had to feel a bit slighted by the pundits not ranking them high and perhaps some disrespect from my peers in Bracketology? Nevertheless, South Carolina was next on the schedule this past Tuesday evening. The Tigers built a double-digit lead early and never let go. Eventually built it to 16 points, en route to a 81-70 win. Big man Jeremiah Tilmon was highly efficient in the victory, scoring 19 (on 8-for-11 shooting) and grabbing 10 rebounds.

Up next was a highly anticpated trip to Tennessee. Another opportunity to really boost their resume and ideally improve some of the important metrics. One key player that was seeking a turnaround was Xavier Pinson. After all, Pinson was held to just two points against the Gamecocks and had five turnovers. Pinson also struggled against Texas A&M last week, scoring seven while committing four turnovers. So Pinson decided to spend extra time in the film room with Martin between games. One of the key takeaways for Pinson, was the subtle reminder that he is at his best when he is in attack mode. So, thats exactly what he did from the get-go at Tennessee. Pinson was agressive throughout, and Mizzou jumped all over the Vols in this one. They had a 20-7 lead after 10 minutes. About mid-way through the second half, Pinson help lead the Tigers to an insurmountable double-digit advantage. Mizzou would go on to win 73 to 64. For Pinson, he had one of the best games of his career, 27 points and a perfect 3-for-3 from distance. For the team, this sends a message to the SEC. It was only a few weeks ago when Tennessee destroyed Mizzou in Columbia. The confidence is here again for Pinson and the Tigers. And perhaps some new found confidence is on the way from the pundits.

Mizzou moved to 10-2, and in prime position for a #3 seed in Bracketeer’s Bracketology.

Oregon State - Daring to predict who the team of the week awards are going to be from one week to the next is an impossible endeavour. At one point this season, this Beaver program was 1-3 vs. D1 competition with losses to Wyoming and Portland at home. Their season quickly looked like a lost cause. The Beavers hung in there and won four of their next six, including a one-point nailbiter over Arizona State last week. Tuesday would bring a different type of test to Corvallis. The USC Trojans came in boasting a top 10 defense nationally and a really impressive resume, with road wins. The game was rescheduled from a December postponement, and was non-standard for the Pac-12’s typical weekend lineup. But nothing is standard in any conference this season. So the Beavers, building off the ASU win, came out with an effective gameplan and got off to a great 31-23 lead by Halftime. As the game went on, things tightened up. The game was tied, when Rodrigue Andela drained two foul shots to put Oregon State ahead, 58-56 with 1:49 to go. Incredibly, those would be the last points of the game as both teams struggled offensively down the stretch. Beavers did not make a field goal in the final 3:13 and USC did not score in the last 2:19. Winning ugly was perfectly fine with this bunch. It also snapped USC’s six-game win streak.

Next up was a trip down I-5 to Eugene and a Saturday night date with rival Oregon. Oregon brought with them a 28-game home winning streak, and Oregon State amazingly hadn’t won a road game over a Top 25 opponent since 1985! However, Oregon did not bring a few key guys with them. Both LJ Figueroa and Chris Duarte were both held out due to Covid Protocol and Will Richardson remained out with an injured wrist. Prime opportunity for these Beavers to compete and possibly win. Early in the second half, the game was tied at 34. That is when the Beavs broke out into an 8-0 run and never looked back. Ethan Thompson scored 19 points, Warith Alatishe had 14 points and 16 rebounds to provide Oregon State one of their most impressive performances in years. Beavers went on to win, 75-64. OSU hopes this will keep them in the top-half of the conference, they are now 4-3 in league play. They’ll need to bring it again next week as they once again face USC, then UCLA on the road.

Florida State - Prior to January 13th, the Seminoles were enduring a 14-day program pause while not knowing for a while when they would get out there. When the green light came on, it really came on for this team. On January 13th, FSU would go on to light up NC State and break several shooting records in a 105-73 victory. Then they were able to keep it up by beating UNC at home. That led us into this week. A week in which FSU was tasked with traveling to Louisville and then looking to avenge a December loss against Clemson. The Seminoles took all the mystery out of the Louisville game and felt right at home out there, building a 42-28 lead by Halftime. Raiquan Gary is a player who has been bringing it since the layoff. Gary would end up scoring 17 points and grabbing eight boards at Louisville. This ultimately was a team effort overall, the team shot nearly 54% and 43% from deep. The offense was crisp with weapons all over the floor. Once again this is looking like the dangerous Florida State teams we’ve come to know under Leonard Hamilton. Noles ultimately finshed off the Cardinals, 78-65.

Saturday brought a Clemson team that had handed FSU a 10-point loss back on December 29th. However, now both programs are heading opposite directions. Clemson was in a funk coming in. Florida State had been waiting for this moment for several weeks, and the Seminoles more than made the most of it. The Seminoles avenged that loss in grand style on Saturday, opening up a commanding lead in the first half and rolling to an 80-61 victory. Here are the highlights:

FSU now sits at 20th in the NET rankings and has a road win against a team in the projected field. The resume is solidifying and more importantly, the Noles are poised to make another run at the ACC title over the next six weeks.

Sam Houston State - Jason Hooten’s Sam Houston State Bearkats were waiting in the wings for several weeks. After all, the Bearkats started 3-5 and hadn’t played a top 200 team since then. The 3-5 start makes it easy for a common fan to overlook this team. However, a closer look under the hood tells you that these losses came against SMU, Texas Tech, Boise State, LSU, and Texas - all tournament caliber clubs! Since the loss to Texas, all they’ve done is win eight in a row. The way the scheduled ultimately played out could be a blessing for Coach Hooten’s team. They were afforded the opportunity to learn invaluable lessons against stiff competition, iron out their rotations, and play a lot of basketball. The streak led to a 5-0 start in the Southland. But up until this past Wednesday, the Bearkats hadn’t faced one of the league favorites (Abilene Christian or Stephen F. Austin). On Wednesday, it was time. ACU was in Huntsville for a visit that must’ve been circled on several Bearkat calendars around town. ACU has made waves this season and we featured them here last month at Bracketeer.org and came into this clash with a four-game win streak of their own.

As the game got a flow, it was the SHSU Bearkats playing the lead role as they built as big as a 12-point first half lead and after a late 5-0 run, took a 39-28 lead to Halftime. The Bearkats were getting tremendous production from two key players, Demarkus Lampley and Zach Nutall all evening long. In the second half, ACU made their move. The Wildcats went on a 6-0 run to cut the SHSU lead down to 46-44. Then the Bearkats took over, going on an 11-2 run of their own to extend the lead back to 11. Despite committing 18 turnovers, Sam Houston State was the better team on this evening, winning 64-57. This was by far the Bearkats best win of the season, and puts them as the lead dog going forward in the Southland Conference race. Stephen F. Austin remains undefeated, however has requested to take a postseason ban this season instead of next. Thusly, Sam Houston State will be in our brackets this week. Congrats Bearkats!

Look for Sam Houston State in Bracketology this week.

Oklahoma - Let’s look at the past four Oklahoma season outcomes, shall we?

• 2017 - No tournament.

• 2018 - 10-seed, 1st round exit.

• 2019 - 9-seed, 2nd round exit.

• 2020 - projected 10-seed, season ended early.

I’m sensing a trend here. Lon Kruger’s Sooners are a consistent program, and he is an outstanding coach. But what were they going to do differently this year to take the next step up? How are they going to get off the bubble and play up to a much better seed, to have a shot at a deep tournament run? Or should we just get used to them occupying the 9-10 seed area again? Tons of questions coming in. And prior to this past week, it certainly felt like we were on our way to a similar year as 2018-20. But that started to change last week. An easy dismissal of Big 12 bottom-feeders Kansas State (76-50), setup a rematch with Kansas.

OU had played really well just two weeks ago in Lawrence, but fell short late. This time in Norman, would be different. The Sooners played remarkably well in an upset win over Kansas, a seven-point win. Dishing the Jayhawks their first three-game losing streak since 2012-13. OU was led by a scintillating performance out of Sophomore De’Vion Harmon. Harmon knocked down four treys and had 22 points to match his season-high output. The win leaves Oklahoma in a much better position, for both the resume and metrics. The Sooners are now 22nd in KenPom (at press time) and have moved into our “In Safely” tier on the Bracketology Big Board. Perhaps this is the year that breaks the trend and Kruger could have himself a second-weekend of the NCAA’s caliber season ahead. For now, enjoy the win gents.

STRONGLY CONSIDERED

HONORABLE MENTION

Michigan Wolverines got back on track this week by handling Maryland and winning at shorthanded Purdue on Friday.

Washington Huskies were one of the worst power conference teams before this week, then a bunch of adjustments happened. The Dawgs went on to sweep Colorado and Utah, unthinkable.

Baylor Bears are beginning to play the tougher part of their schedule. Still passing tests though with realitive ease (at OK State and vs. KU).

Miami (OH) Quite a week for the Redhawks. Started with a 10-point win on Tuesday over Ball State. Then, the upset over Bowling Green (96-77) on Thursday. Topped off by a 85-63 road blowout over EMU.

Alabama Severely beat LSU in the Bayou, shot the lights out. Then hung on to beat Mississippi State over the weekend.

Appalachian State Mountaineers played wonderfully well in their sweep of conference kingpin's Georgia State. Star Guard Justin Forrest was the star in the opener (23 pts.) and James Lewis was the man in Game 2 (22/14 rebs.)

Saint Mary's Gaels picked up their first two road wins in amazingly their first two road games of the season. A 65-61 pressure-cooker win over LMU and beat local rivals San Francisco, 67-63.

Syracuse Orange got into serious tourney consideration by winning for the first time against a team (V-Tech) in the projected field. Syracuse also took care of Miami handily on Tuesday.

Jacksonville State JSU's first ever win at Murray State occurred on Thursday. Gamecocks kept the momentum going at Austin Peay on Saturday, defeating the Gov's 76-70.

Stanford Oscar Da Silva had a nifty backdoor cut to get free and catch an inbounds pass that allowed him to quickly make the game-winning shot to beat P12 leaders, UCLA.

Alabama A&M Bulldogs got to 4-0! And it took a win over one of the SWAC heavyweights, Southern U. AAMU was able to win going away, 68-58.

Penn State Nittany Lions snapped a 5-game win streak by beating Rutgers on Thursday. PSU followed that performance up by beating Northwestern.

North Alabama The Lions made some ASUN noise this weekend by sweeping Jacksonville. The sweep puts them in first at 5-1 in the ASUN.

Memphis Tigers made some lineup and defensive adjustments and it yielded great success thus far. A big 19-point home win over Wichita State and a road romp at ECU

Coppin State Golden Eagles were able to twice beat Norfolk State in an important MEAC series. Coppin State is now 5-1 in conference under Juan Dixon.

Loyola-Chicago Ramblers are tearing through the Valley. Two more blowout road wins, Wednesday at Valpo and Sunday at Bradley.

Villanova Returned to action after 26 days away. Picked up two quality home wins over Seton Hall and Providence to shake off any rust.

Green Bay The Phoenix played a fantastic two games against a previously hot Purdue Fort Wayne squad. Green Bay managed to sweep PFW with neither game being close.

Ole Miss Rebels are finally playing better basketball. A road win in basketball's version of the Egg Bowl helps (64-46) over MSU. Then on Saturday, Ole Miss took care of Texas A&M as well by 11.

Akron Stayed hot by beating Bowling Green on the road, coming off the Toledo upset. Then the Zips picked up two more wins in the week, over CMU and WMU.

Wyoming Pokes swept Nevada. Very impressive week for new Head Coach Jeff Linder and staff. This program was in the basement last season. Wyoming also won at Air Force on Monday.

American Swept Loyola-MD in an important early Patriot League series. Game 2 takes the cake here. Jamir Harris had nine 3-pointers including the game-winning buzzer beater!

Davidson Road win at Umass after a great second half surge to get control of the game on Sunday. Wildcats also beat Fordham on Wednesday.

Northern Kentucky Road sweep at Horizon League newcomers, Robert Morris. NKU needed OT in game two, but pulled it out. This sweep also snapped a 4-game losing streak.

Arizona Wildcats won at rival Arizona State with a game-winning basket by Azuolas Tubelis. The controversial ending sent Bobby Hurley into a frenzy. Rematch on Monday.

Longwood A surprise sweep of High Point got the Lancers up to 4-8 in Big South play. They won both games by double-digits and continue to play hard for HC Griff Aldrich.

Notre Dame Emphatic away win at Miami, 73-59 on Sunday. Prentiss Hubb (19), Juwan Durham (16) and Nate Laszewski (16) led the way for the Irish.

Jackson State After a 19-day program pause, the Tigers went to Grambling to win by 14. Impressive performance, and JSU is now 2-0 in SWAC play.

Valparaiso Road sweep at Illinois State came after a five straight blowout losses. Crusaders pulled it together nicely this past weekend.

Boston U. Bounced back after a tough start, by winning twice at Lafayette in the only scheduled meetings this year with the Leopards.

Enjoy the end of January games. Seven Sundays til’ Selection Sunday!
~Rocco Miller

Teams of the Week Awards: Jan. 11-17, 2021

College Basketball Teams of the Week – Week 8 (January 11-17, 2021)

We are less than eight weeks away from Selection Sunday? Seriously? Possibly more difficult to believe than any other year. Just think, we just saw American and Loyola-Maryland get on the court for the first time this past week, plus programs like New Mexico State and UC Davis who cannot buy a break to get games in during this unprecedented pandemic season of 2020-21. For the rest of the country, we are seeing some crucial teams getting back on the court soon - such as Drake, Saint Louis and hopefully Villanova. That’s enough about the future, let’s review which teams made the biggest impact in Week 8.

AWARD WINNERS!

Virginia - Frustrating and disappointing could definitely describe Virginia Basketball in the early going. A highly anticipated season with lofty expectations, including a preseason number one seed from me, quickly went south. An opening week stunning loss against San Francisco, threw the journey off course in the second game of the year. Then another scare against Kent State, which the Hoos needed an overtime period just to escape in a game against an overmatched opponent on their home floor. Shortly after, a positive Covid-19 test caused the program to take an 18-day hiatus. Then came the blowout loss to Gonzaga, where UVA was hardly competitive. It left the Cavs in the dust with national pundits. It mean a taller task for the rest of the season for Head Coach Tony Bennett’s staff. They knew they had to roll up their sleeves prior to ACC play. Four victories against the bottom tier of the ACC (Notre Dame twice, Wake Forest and Boston College), provided Virginia vital building blocks necessary prior to returning to elite level competition. In hindsight, the early league schedule really benefited UVA in getting this vaunted pack-line defense organized and allow key newcomers to gel. Those newcomers primarily include verterans Sam Hauser and Trey Murphy and Freshman Reece Beekman. All of this backstory, leads us to a stiff road test at Clemson. This isn’t your typical Clemson team, they came in #1 in the country at Defensive Efficiency and they had a 9-1 record with wins over FSU, Alabama, Purdue, Maryland, and others. Prior to this game the Tigers looked perhaps like the team to beat in the ACC this year. Virginia made sure to change that narrative on Saturday. The Hoos busted out to an 18-2 early lead with sharpshooting from the perimeter. During the opening half, UVA had a 15-0 run and a separate 9-0 run. The game was essentially sealed when a third big run of 10-0 occured early in the second half, making the score an insurmountable 76-37. Virginia would end up shooting an amazing 60.7% and 55.6% from three in this clinic. The team hit 15 triples on the way to a 85-50 bashing at Clemson’s Littlejohn Coliseum. Earlier last week was the second of two Notre Dame vs. UVA contests. Virginia nailed 12 threes in that one, en route to a 80-68 win. Suddenly, Virginia looks tough again and will unquestionably recieve national attention. Most importantly, the Cavs are 5-0 and firmly on top of the ACC standings.

Trey Murphy and Virginia steamrolled Clemson in the premier ACC game last week.

Ohio State - There is no time to breathe in the rugged Big Ten Conference. Look no further than this Ohio State Basketball journey. The day after Christmas and coming on the heels of an important non-conference win over UCLA, the Buckeyes had a trip to Evanston on tap to face Northwestern. It looked on paper to be one of the rare occasions that Ohio State could get a victory without needing their best performance. Well, that rationale would’ve been sadly incorrect. They caught Northwestern during their surge and lost a tight 71-70 battle that day. The loss also gave the Buckeyes a disappointing 1-2 record in conference at the time. The lesson? Don’t take anyone for granted, including Northwestern. Allow us to fast forward now to last Wednesday when Northwestern made the return trip to Ohio State. A game that potentially was circled by Duane Washington. Washington played poorly in their first meeting (1-9 shooting, 7 points), but had really turned it on the three games in between. As it turned out, it was indeed Washington who was ready for Nortwestern. The Buckeyes would get their revenge 81-71, and Washington led the way with 23 points and six assists and put up a very respectable 119 ORtg for the game. This set the stage for a road showdown with Illinois. The Buckeyes had already suffered three road losses. The Buckeyes started turning the tides a week prior with a road win at Rutgers. Illinois has been regarded as a top tier Big Ten squad all season. Ohio State’s E.J. Liddell was ready for the challenge. Liddell posted a career-high 26 points for Ohio State. The Buckeyes built a large 18-point lead early in the second half, a truly impressive display. Illinois came back intensely down the stretch, cutting the lead to five with 1:30 left. Clutch free throw shooting (10-for-12 in the final 90 seconds) allowed the Buckeyes to ultimately close out the victory. The fantastic 2-0 week puts the Buckeyes in prime position to be a top 4 seed in our next bracket and alive in the Big 10 title chase. In case you missed the game, here it is consolidated into 10 minutes:

Ohio State vs Illinois 2021 College Basketball HighlightsSee an ad? If you see any ads on the channel that is due to the video being claimed (almost every vi...

Utah State - If you stopped paying attention after the home loss to BYU on December 5th it could be understood. After all, the Aggies were searching for answers following a narrow defeat and staring at a 1-3 start to the season. Fortunately, the Aggies had the rest of December and early January to fine tune their craft against inferior competition. The Aggies would rip off eight wins in a row, which included a 6-0 start in the Mountain West Conference’s new back to back schedule format (designed to reduce travel). That led us to a showdown series against San Diego State. Who could forget one of the final great moments of the 2019-2020 season when Sam Merrill hit the game-winning three to sink mighty San Diego State in the MWC Title Game? It earned Utah State an automatic bid, and left SDSU on the ropes for a number one seed. So now in 2020-21, the two teams meet again…twice. The opening game was all about defense for the Aggies. They made life extremely difficult on the Aztec offense. Star players Neemias Queta and Brock Miller handled the scoring load on the other end. Surprisingly to me, a final run never came from the Aztecs. USU won it in slugfest fashion, 57-45. The momentum was with Utah State pretty clearly heading into Saturday’s rematch. In the Mountain West, they allow a day off in between the back-to-back game format. Conventional wisdom was that the Aztecs would have the needed time to establish adjustments and tweak the offensive attack. It became evident during a late first half surge and SDSU took a 10-point advantage into Halftime. Utah State would charge back and eventually get the lead late in the game. Late clutch free throws helped Utah State get a gigantic two-game sweep. Head Coach Craig Smith could not stop raving about SDSU’s physicality and toughness, he was clearly proud of his guys for meeting the test twice. Quite an exciting week it was in Logan, Utah.

Texas State - Here is the surprise team this week, the Texas State Bobcats. Considering that they had the saga with embattled Head Coach Danny Kaspar, that eventually led to his dismissal. Terrence “TJ” Johnson was left to take the keys to the car and keep the guys bonded. For the most part, TJ Johnson has done a nice job in San Marcos. The Bobcats non-conference slate included losses at Mississippi State and at Texas, nothing wrong there. But an embarassing loss to non-D1 Our Lady of the Lake, left people searching for answers. The Bobcats finished non-conference with a 6-3 record and opened up Sun Belt play with a road split at Louisiana. After a full week off due to cancellations, the third week of conference play was a stiff challenge at defending regular season champs Little Rock for a two-game series. The Bobcats came ready an prepared. An early jump start led to a 25-8 early lead. Bobcats had that lead maintained for almost the duration of the game. Then the final two minutes, things got pretty crazy - despite Texas State eventually pulling out a great 63-59 road win. TX State’s Marlin Davis and Little Rock’s star player, Markquis Nowell got into a scuffle which resulted in a double-ejection.

Fight breaks out late between #TXST and #LittleRock @smdrsports pic.twitter.com/uHNV2E9Hox

— Drew King (@drewking0222) January 16, 2021

Game two figured to bring an angry Little Rock team. Both Davis and Nowell were suspended for the game due to their roles in the previous night’s altercation. So essentially both teams picked up where they left off at the end of game one. Passion on both sides was on full display from the opening tip. Despite physical play, the shooters started hot on both sides. A late 8-0 run to end the first half gave the Bobcats a 40-34 advantage. By the first media timeout, the lead grew to 11. Texas State was getting a scintilating performance from Caleb Asberry, who finished with 23 points on 9-for-11 (5-for-6 3-point) shooting. It was a great display from Caleb, the Bobcats would go on to build three different 11-point leads during the second half and ultimately were able to cool off the Trojans, holding Little Rock to 22 second half points. Bobcats finished off the road sweep, 67-56. It puts Little Rock down to the middle of the pack of the Sun Belt at 3-3 now. Many folks picked the Trojans to win the league. Texas State sits at 3-1 now and suddenly are in the mix to become a Sun Belt leader. The league schedule is separated by East and West, with the West teams playing two separate series (4 games total) against each other. Be sure to tune in when these two meet again on February 5th and 6th in San Marcos.

Baylor - By the time you read this, you will know that the Baylor beat Kansas fairly handily in the new Week 9. We will save that talk for next week. With today being a holiday, we didn’t have our usual Monday morning release. With all that covered, let’s take a look back to Saturday. A Saturday that saw a major College Basketball showdown take place in Lubbock, when Baylor visited Texas Tech. These Bears have been a locomotive to opponents this year, building off their incredible 2019-20 campaign. We did unfortunately miss out on a showdown to see how Baylor would stack up against Gonzaga, we can only hope for the future to see that blockbuster matchup. What we do know is Baylor had blitzed everyone on their schedule by at least 11-ponts or more during an 11-0 start. We also knew that Texas Tech came into this game riding high after a huge road win at Texas, thanks to a Mac McClung step-back jumper. The hype was big, I even named this our heavyweight game of the weekend to watch. Baylor came out swinging as usual. The Bears had an early 11-0 run to spark a controlled first half of action. Leading 26-18 at the intermission, Head Coach Scott Drew had to feel pretty good given this was a road game with some fans in attendance. What perhaps he didn’t realize, was what his reserve Sophomore guard Adam Flagler was going to bring. Flagler played his best game of the season, scoring 15 points off the bench. After Texas Tech hung around and made it a tight game for much of the second half, it was Flagler’s jumper with around seven minutes left in this game that would put Baylor ahead for good. The typically steady Jared Butler had a rough beginning, but hung in there and made two important threes down the stretch. Bears got out of Lubbock with a 68-60 win and a perfect 12-0 record.

Highlights from Baylor's 68-60 win at Texas Tech.

STRONGLY CONSIDERED:

HONORABLE MENTION:

Alabama Tide rolled through Rupp Arena last Tuesday for an unusual victory and by 20 points as well. Then got a visit from Arkansas, and completely dismantled the Hogs by 31. Impressive.

Western Kentucky Home & Away sweep over Marshall was key for the Tops' CUSA title chances. They had to sweat both games out. WKU sits at 4-2 in conference with a much easier schedule ahead.

Northeastern The Northeastern train kept a rolling in Charleston, SC over the weekend. The Huskies pulled off a road sweep over the Cougars to improve to 6-0 in CAA play.

Pacific After 25-day team shutdown, came out and blew out Santa Clara. Followed that up with a 9-point win over Loyola Marymount.

New Hampshire UNH made a major statement by beating previously unbeaten Stony Brook on the road, not once, but twice. Wildcats are suddenly in the thick of the A-East title hunt.

Bradley Braves picked up three wins this week. At Northern Iowa and a sweep of Evansville. Braves are ready to contend in the Valley.

IUPUI Jaguars picked up a stunning sweep at Northern Kentucky over the weekend. These were the Jags first two Horizon League victories of the year.

Virginia Tech Passed the test when Duke visited Blacksburg last Tuesday. Then went on the road to beat Wake Forest yesterday.

UMass Minutemen played well enough to get past URI in Overtime. Followed that up by going to Fordham and achieving a blowout win over the Rams

Bellarmine Road sweep at Florida Gulf Coast. The first two road wins at the D1 level in school history. FGCU had a slim lead atop the ASUN standings prior to the series.

Purdue Boilers took care of business this week by beating Penn State this weekend, and of course the big road win at Indiana on Thursday.

Cal State Bakersfield Roadrunners had a wonderful trip to the Hawaiian Island of Oahu. Hawaii is usually a difficult place to win, but CSUB was able to control both game and got a big sweep. 5-1 now in the Big West.

Auburn Sharife Cooper has bursted on to the CBB scene and led Auburn to two big wins last week at Georgia and vs. Kentucky. Cooper had 28 & 12 assists and 11 & 8 assists respectively.

Lafayette The Leopards pulled off an important home and away sweep over Loyola (MD) this weekend. It was the opening games for Loyola, who was picked 3rd in the preseason poll.

Texas Tech Red Raiders had a season-changing win at Texas, thanks to a Mac McClung step-back jumper. Amazing shot. Raiders later lost a tight one with Baylor over the weekend.

Grambling Grinded out a tough road win at perennial SWAC contender, Texas Southern. Also had a home win over Alcorn State.

Army The Knights went into defending Patriot League Tournament Champion, Boston U.'s house and dominated a 2-game series. Two double-digit wins and Army looks like a Patriot League contender today.

Furman Paladins were the first team to knock off the Citadel in a mid-week game, then they gave ETSU their first conference loss over the weekend. Furman in control of the standings for now.

Indiana State A road sweep at Illinois State gets the Sycamores up to 3-5 in the Valley. They've been showing great improvement in the past two weeks.

Manhattan It's been a struggle for the Jaspers most of the season. But they found a way to sweep Niagara over the weekend and are now .500 for the campaign.

Florida State Back on the right track after two home wins against NC State and UNC. In the NC State game, the Noles shot the lights out (41-for-58 from the field and 12-18 from deep).

Loyola-Chicago Opened the week by getting revenge on Monday over Indiana State (they lost game one in the prior week). Over the ensuing weekend, Ramblers romped Northern Iowa twice which includes a 42-point win on Sunday.

Southern Miss Golden Eagles took a step forward in their program rebuild by sweeping Middle Tennessee. Coach Ladner is starting to gain momentum in Hattiesburg.

Morehead State Eagles continue to impress. Thursday was their largest win ever at Eastern Illinois (by 26) and a road win at SEMO on Saturday. Morehead State is a sneaky 6-2 in OVC play.

UNC-Greensboro Spartans played at a high level in both double-digit victories at Samford. Kent State Golden Flashes hit the road for two wins. First a win at CMU, then a win over favored Ohio (who had Jason Preston back). KSU is now 3-2 in the league.

Pittsburgh De ja vu, Pitt beat Syracuse again this past week. This one was more impressive, a 20-point comeback win fueled by the comeback of Justin Champagnie.

Purdue Fort Wayne Mastadons impressively picked up a road sweep at Milwaukee. PFW has now won 4 in a row to get to 5-5 in their first season of Horizon League play.

LSU Tigers picked up two home wins over Arkansas and South Carolina. Cam Thomas contunues his stellar Freshman campaign/NBA tune up season.

Prairie View A&M Took down SWAC rival Texas Southern. PVAMU was raked about 70 spots lower in KenPom coming in, but rose to the occasion behind Jawaun Daniels who had 21 points/6 rebounds.

Florida Atlantic Owls bounced back in a big way this week. Sweeping rivals FIU in a home & away series. Game two featured an FAU high octane attack that led to a 44-point win.

Wofford Always tough to get back-to-back road wins in the SoCon. Terriers pulled it off by winning at VMI and Chattanooga. Both are tough outs on the road.

Gonzaga Bulldogs got two subtle tests from Pepperdine and at Saint Mary's. But big second half efforts in each game helped quell the threats.

North Texas Mean Green got a dominant sweep over UTEP. North Texas is starting to hit their groove, dangerous team defensively.

Albany Home sweep over NJIT to get back to 3-3 in the America East. The Great Danes were considerably lower in the metrics prior to the series, great weekend at Albany.

Welcome to Week Nine! 55 days until Selection Sunday

~Rocco Miller

Teams of the Week: Week 7 of College Hoops

College Basketball Teams of the Week – Week 7 (January 4-10, 2021)

This past week saw some amazing finishes across College Basketball. Louisiana’s Cajun Dome turning the lights red with under five seconds to go on Little Rock’s final possession on Friday is an all-timer. But we also had some amazing buzzer beaters in the Youngstown State win at Wright State, Austin Peay’s game-winner against Eastern Illinois, and Xavier’s big shot to beat Providence yesterday. The back-to-back format in several leagues continues to intrigue. Cleveland State has seemingly mastered the concept, starting 8-0 with four sweeps over Horizon League competition. Meanwhile, Western Kentucky was fortunate to start 2-2 in their first two weekends playing under this format and San Diego State has had their own mixed results. On the bigger stage, elite teams are making moves. Gonzaga continues to put on clinics, and Baylor has been a steady force at the top. We do our best to cover the rest in this week’s column.

Freshman phenom Evan Mobley had 19 points and 11 rebounds to lead USC to a rare win at McHale.

USC - 1985. It was 36 years ago, and Trojans Assistant Coach Chris Capko was just a one-year old. This was the last time the USC Basketball program pulled off the rare desert sweep of the Arizona schools. If there were ever a year to do it, this was it. After all, Arizona had just placed themselves on a one-year postseason ban and Arizona State was dealing with multiple personnel issues due to Covid-19. Still, this is no easy task. Arizona was on a 4-game winning streak which included a win over Colorado and a sweep of the Washington schools on the road. USC was coming into the week off a home series split with the Mountain schools. In Tucson, the Trojans found themselves trailing early on until a 10-0 run sparked them to a narrow halftime lead. In the second half, USC was able to overwhelm the Wildcats with their length defensively. Despite Arizona’s Azuolas Tubelis having a career-high 31, USC held other Wildcat stars James Akinjo (0-9) Jermel Baker (1-7) to horrific shooting performances. The Trojan lead held steady between four and eight points most of the second half before finally pulling away for good, 87-73. Not only a key road win, but the first true road win of the year for USC. Isaiah White (22) and Evan Mobley (19) led the mostly balanced scoring effort. Then came part two of the desert duo, a game at Arizona State. ASU was coming in short-handed but played very competitively just days before against UCLA with the same roster condition in an overtime loss. USC did the best thing Trojan faithful could hope for, take control of the game early. Trojans rode an early 15-2 run to secure the halftime advantage, 36-32. However, the Sun Devils were in the midst of a 17-0 run to climb all the way back in it early in the second half. Impressive for a team without guards Remy Martin and Jaelen House as well as forwards Jalen Graham and Taeshon Cherry. Trojans trailed by 2 with just over 7 minutes remaining. A 15-3 run by USC put this one away late. Tahj Eddy, a transfer from Santa Clara, scored 12 of his 16 in the second half. Evan Mobley had another double-double (10/13), and his older brother Isaiah Mobley had his own double-double (13/10) en route to a 73-64 victory. The desert sweep puts the Trojans in great shape today for bracket forecasting. They now have two quality road wins to go along with a blowout win over BYU. The Trojans are now 3-1 in conference play with the Washington schools coming next week, where they will be heavily favored in each contest. Quite a week for USC, party like it’s 1985!

Purdue - In the Big 10 Conference you get more at-bats for big wins than anywhere else in America. For a team like Purdue this season, who figures to be fighting for an at-large all year long, what you do with said at-bats will ultimately determine your postseason destination. The Boilermakers entered the week with one game on the schedule after having their contest with Nebraska postponed. That game was a trip to the Breslin Center in East Lansing, Michigan. A place where Purdue hadn’t won since 2016-17. Even more daunting was the fact that Michigan State seemingly was figuring things out finally. The Spartans had destroyed a really good Rutgers team in their previous game. So coming into the Purdue matchup, this appeared to be just as tall of an order for HC Matt Painter’s team as any other season. For most of the game, Purdue was outmatched by Michigan State. The Spartans built as much as a 17-point lead in this one and appeared to be cruising to another important home win. Purdue didn't back down with its backs against the wall. In a road game against a ranked opponent, the Boilermakers instead outscored Michigan State 39-23 in the second half, with Trevion Williams' second-half explosion (he scored 24 of his 26 points after halftime) exceeding MSU's scoring output in the second half as a team. That includes his game clinching jumper in the waning seconds of the game to seal the win. Purdue is now sitting at 8-5 overall with some big wins, they also beat Ohio State this year. They key for Purdue will be to stay a couple of games above .500 and they will be selected for the tournament, and likely seeded very well despite a middling overall record. Here is how it all went down at the Breslin Center:

PURDUE STEALS ONE IN EAST LANSING! 😮

Trevion Williams hits the game-winning bucket in @BoilerBall's comeback victory: pic.twitter.com/h7FhZHY3XV

— Big Ten Network (@BigTenNetwork) January 9, 2021

Mississippi State - Time for us to come clean. We had the Bulldogs pegged 13th out of 14 in the SEC for our preseason predictions article. The Bulldogs were not on the initial Bracketology Big Board either. That turned out to be a mistake, and here is why. Three-point shooting, interior defense and second chance opportunities. MSU has excelled well beyond expectations and it is translating into wins. Last week the Bulldogs hosted a hot Missouri team that had the best resume in the SEC at the time. The game provided a key opportunity for this improving Bulldog team to get on the at-large bid map. The first half of the game however was a real struggle, the Tigers were controlling the pace of play and the scoreboard. The deficit at Halftime was 39-27. Things were looking pretty bleak in that moment. Bulldogs came into the contest with four losses including a double overtime heartbreaker against Kentucky the week before. In that Kentucky loss, they blew a 15-point lead. So they were in the complete opposite position on Tuesday night against Mizzou. However, the Bulldogs erupted in the second half. Iverson Mullinar and D.J. Stewart lit it up for the Bulldogs, contributing 22 points a piece. Defensively, MSU had no answers for Jeremiah Tilmon in the first half but made impressive adjustments to contain him in the second half. Overall the Bulldogs just shot the ball extremely well and got on a roll that Mizzou couldn’t solve. Bulldogs secured a 78-63 win and arrived in the periphery of our bracket watch. Before we could celebrate the week, MSU then had to go to Nashville to face an improving Vanderbilt team. Mississippi State got a real test in this one, but thanks to 61% shooting, the Bulldogs had just enough fire power to outlast the Commodores, 84-81. Head Coach Ben Howland went with a shorter bench, and defensively the Bulldogs allowed 15 triples to Vandy. It will be interesting to see how he manages that dilemma going forward, but we do know that this offense is potent and the Bulldogs are much better than the 13th best SEC team.

Northeastern - Bill Coen’s Northeastern program has been a staple in the CAA for well over a decade now. Coming into this year this Huskies was left with a young roster and had to deal with several offseason Covid issues. It nearly left them without a non-conference schedule, as was announced in mid-November by the school. As December rolled around, the Huskies were allowed to resume practice and were anxious to schedule games. They picked up a home & away with UMass, and marquee road games at Syracuse and West Virginia. In total, the Huskies packed five games into a 12-day span against real tough competition. Despite sitting at 1-5 heading into conference play, this team was growing together and Coach Coen was learning more about his team. In the long run, it may have been the best thing to happen for the program to succeed this year. An opening weekend sweep of Elon, set the tone for a showdown series with rival Hofstra. The two-game series was split between Hempstead on Friday and Boston on Saturday. The CAA does this with the travel partner teams when they face each other in the two-game format for this season only. By halftime of the game at Hofstra, it appeared that Northeastern wasn’t ready for this level of fight yet. After all, Hofstra led comfortably 46-29 and were executing their gameplan beautifully. But this Huskies’ squad was tough as nails in the second half and rallied all the way back to get the game into overtime. Outstanding adjustments by Coach Coen and staff really opened up better looks and put the clamps on the Pride defensively. In OT, Shaquille Walters hit a dagger three late to put Northeastern up by 5 help seal the 81-78 win. Back in Boston, Northeastern was ready for game two of the series. The Huskies came out firing often from distance. 37 three-point attempts resulted in 15 makes. More impotantly, the defensive adjustments from game one carried over to game two. Northeastern force 17 turnovers and held Hofstra to just five triples. It was enough to pull away for an 11-point win. Now sitting at 4-0 in CAA with a commanding first place lead, the Huskies are well-positioned to make a run at an unexpected CAA regular season title. Even more encouraging is the Huskies are getting better with each game they play.

Pittsburgh - This Panthers season has already been a rollercoaster. Several pundits wrote this team off early when they lost at home to a local NEC program, Saint Francis. That game resembled a lot of the struggles Pitt Basketball has endured over the past few seasons under both Kevin Stallings and current HC Jeff Capel. Since that rough opener, these Panthers have done all they can to try and right the ship. They ripped off five straight wins including road wins at Northwestern and Miami. The Northwestern win began as an after thought, but gained legs as the Wildcats started having significant Big 10 success. A 10-point loss at Louisville snapped the Pitt win-streak though and left the Panthers as somewhat of an after thought still in the ACC. That led to Wednesday’s game at Syracuse. They were facing the Orange only because Florida State went on activity pause due to Covid-19 related issues and the schedules were adjusted by the conference. Pitt had their own challenges with Covid, they were forced to practice in three groups. Making it increasingly difficult to prepare. Needless to say, the first half wasn’t pretty. Pitt trailed by 14 at the Half and only had 18 total points in the game. It looked like a “get your legs back” type of game. Especially considering only nine scholarship players available. John Hugley, Nike Sibande and Noah Collier were all left home under covid-19 restrictions and Justin Champagnie, the team’s top player and the ACC’s leading rebounder, was out with a knee injury. With seven minutes left, Pitt found themselves down by 12 still. A massive turnaround came next. Pitt managed to rally all the way back and beat the Orange, 63-60. Xavier Johnson said after the game, that Syracuse slipped up and the Panthers wanted it more. They certainly proved that on the glass, outrebounding Syracuse 49-33. The win vaults Pitt into the NCAA at-large conversation. They now have some significant road win pedigree on the resume. Also, the chemistry has to be pretty strong after an experience like this was. Interestingly enough, we will get a rematch this coming Saturday in Pittsburgh. Another key test for the Panthers.

Pitt’s bench rises to their feet as they smell upset inside of Syracuse’s Carrier Dome.

Strongly Considered for Top Honors

Honorable Mention

Kentucky - ‘Cats had their best week of the season by far. Escaped over Vandy by 3, then went down to Gainesville and took down the Gators in a blow out (76-58).

Radford - Highlanders played four games this week and won them all! Two sweeps over Hampton and Charleston Southern to improve to 7-1 in Big South action.

Purdue Fort Wayne - UIC came into Fort Wayne with a 2-0 Horizon League record and a good amount of momentum. The Mastadons gave the Flames a rude awakening by sweeping them in an OT win and a blowout win.

Indiana State - In lone game of the week, Sycamores rallied to upset Loyola-Chicago 76-71. Tyreke Key was magnificient, 31 pts and 10 rebs.

The Citadel - Hayden Brown missed most of last season with a leg injury, but has come back stronger than ever. A brilliant 37-point game stunned Chattanooga and gave the Bulldogs a big win in their SoCon opener.

Alabama - Tide kept on rollin this week by winning the Iron Bowl of Hoops in Auburn, 94-90 and an impressive 15-point victory over Florida on Tuesday.

Montana State - A road sweep for the Bobcats this weekend over Northern Colorado. Montana St. played fantastic in a 12-point opening win, and grinded out a tough OT win to complete the sweep.

Stanford - Cardinal got three wins this week. At Oregon State and a sweep of the Washington schools. They did it all without Senior leader Daejon Davis.

Toledo - Rockets continued to get it done this week. Toledo beat Kent State on the road in a tight battle and cruised past Ohio at home.

LSU - Tigers notched their first road win of the year in convincing fashion. Downing Ole Miss, 75-61. LSU also escaped a scare from Georgia in OT on Wednesday.

Long Island - Important sweep for the Sharks this past week over St. Francis (PA). Eral Penn and Ty Flowers paced LIU, and the Sharks moved to 3-1 in NEC play.

USC Upstate - For these Spartans things looked bleak during their 0-9 start to the season. But a great sweep over Longwood and an overall 3-game win streak have got them back to .500 in league play.

Tennessee - Vols took care of business this week by beating a tough Arkansas team, then getting a road victory at Texas A&M on Saturday.

St. Francis (NY) - Terriers played at a high level in the sweep of Mount St. Mary's this week. SFNY got it done on the defensive end, limiting the Mountaineers to 55 points in each game.

Missouri State - This feels like a weekly tradition for the Bears. A road sweep in the Valley is incredibly valuable and Missouri State did exactly that in Valparaiso this weekend.

Cleveland State - Vikings continued to roll by sweeping Northern Kentucky. An incredible 8-0 record now in Horizon League action, Cleveland State will be on the next Bracketology Big Board.

Tulsa - Golden Hurricane remain hot. A 61-51 road win at South Florida gets Tulsa up to 4-1 in the AAC. Three of the four wins on road wins too.

Sam Houston State - Bearkats have been putting it all together lately and getting it done on the road. Now with four straight road wins after beating SE Louisiana and Central Arkansas this week.

Loyola Marymount - After a 22-day layoff due to Holidays and Covid-related issues, the Lions showed up for a key WCC win over San Francisco on Sunday evening.

South Dakota - Coyotes grinded out two tough wins at Kansas City. South Dakota is now 4-0 in Summit League play after the key road sweep.

Iowa - Hawkeyes avenged their only B1G loss on Sunday, by beating Minnesota handily. Iowa also added a good road win at Maryland by 22 on Thursday.

Lipscomb - Bison had to play twice at D1 newcomer and darkhorse program, Bellarmine. Lipscomb managed to escape with two narrow victories. At 3-1, Bison still in the hunt for the ASUN title.

North Carolina - Heels got a much needed road win at Miami. Leaky Black led the way with 16 points and 9 boards.

Utah Valley - Mark "Mad Dog" Madsen's bunch came ready to host Cal Baptist. The Wolverines played great in a sweep over the Lancers, winning by 27 in the first game and held on for a 4-point win on Saturday.

Michigan - Wolverines passed another test this week with flying colors by beating Minnesota 82-57. Michigan is now 10-0 and threatening to be a top-seed in Bracket projections.

Charleston - Cougars came into the week 3-6 and behind Drexel in most metrics. But Charleston put it together nicely this weekend to sweep the Dragons and improve to 3-1 in the CAA.

Fordham - Rams get a special shout-out this week for an improbable win over Dayton on Tuesday. Fordham carried out a strong week by taking Davidson down to the wire as well, losing by just 3.

Austin Peay - Star player, Terry Taylor, hit an NBA-ranged bank shot to stun Eastern Illinois, 74-71, in their building. Key road win for the Gov's in dramatic fashion.

Louisville - Cardinals had another test at home, this time with Virginia Tech. Cards were able to pull off a 73-71 victory in a see-saw battle. Another good one for the UL resume.

Colgate - In two rematched of last year's Patriot League Title Game, the Raiders went into Boston University and got a dominant sweep. Colgate won game two by 44 points.

UMBC - Retrievers got another America East sweep at New Hampshire. Quality campaign in the works right now for Ryan Odom's team.

Morehead State - Two more home wins for the Eagles, most impressively beating a hot Jacksonville State team. Also took care of Tennessee Tech.

Check tomorrow for a new Bracketology Big Board and Games of the Week.

~Rocco Miller

Texas Leads Teams of the Week Awards: Week 6

College Basketball Teams of the Week – Week 6 (December 28, 2020 - January 3, 2021)

A very Happy New Year to all! Welcome to the first column of 2021. I hope everyone had the opportunity to celebrate the new year and view some of the best College Basketball action of the season thus far. We have a lot to cover today and some very deserving teams of the week. The choices were not easy.

Before we begin, a few important updates on Bracket projections. Today, the NET rankings have been released. This is significant for being able to assist in sorting teams more accurately for bracketology work. I plan to share the first Big Board of 2021 tomorrow, stay tuned for that. The first complete bracket exercise will come late next week or in two weeks. The reason for patience is two-fold.

• NCAA Tournament information should be released soon. Including locations, policies, procedures

• Several teams have limited data. For example, Siena just played their opener yesterday. I’d prefer to give as many of the teams time to play as I can. Otherwise, we are juggling more preseason expectations weight than actual achieved success. Not preferred.

Now, let’s review last week.

Jericho Sims with the emphatic slam. Texas routed Kansas in Lawrence.

Texas - It had been 13 days since anyone had heard from Texas. Shaka Smart’s group had the majority of the Holidays off following a 77-74 win over Oklahoma State back on December 20th. The winners of the Maui Invitational still had some folks wondering how good they will be, or as many have asked, is Texas back? A trip to Lawrence, Kansas and Phog Allen Fieldhouse to open up 2021 was a great way for the Horns and the rest of America to gauge where this team stands in the hunt for a Big 12 title. The Baylor Bears have had an unbelievable past year and a half, and continue to be the front-runners. Then you have perennial power Kansas next in the pecking order. Texas had to feel a bit slighted coming into this game, despite what they achieved in Asheville (home of this year’s Maui Invitational). Now that we’ve established the expectations and build up let’s review what happened. Texas jumped out to a 10-2 lead in the opening stanza. That cushion was sustained throughout the first half, thanks to Kai Jones - who scored all 12 of his points in the first half of play. The Horns carried a 37-29 lead into the break. Dominance ensued in the second half, unlike we have seen before in this building in the Bill Self era. Texas shot 57% in the half, was perfect 7-7 from the line, and went 6-13 (62%) from deep to run away with an 84-59 win. The sheer breaking of the Jayhawks will was astonishing to see. Yes, it is still just a single win. However, this should do wonders for Shaka Smart’s club and for his job security. This firmly established Texas as a National and Big 12 Title contender. There are very little weaknesses on this veteran team, and a ton of talent to work with. This was only the second win ever for Texas at Kansas (2-18 all-time record) and Kansas worst loss at home under Bill Self.

Tulsa - The Golden Hurricane were a major thorn to American Conference contenders in 2019-20 season. Along the way, Frank Haith’s team established themselves as a contender. It all started with an early January home win over Houston, that led to a great AAC run and co-championship at 13-5 in the conference. This season, Tulsa started with a rough 1-3 mark. The team had a mix of newcomers that needed time to gel with regulars Brandon Rachal, Elijah Joiner, and co. Following that start, Tulsa had picked up three consecutive wins including a win over struggling Memphis. Up next was Houston, sound familiar? As amazing as Houston was a year ago, this Houston team appears to be even tougher and several pundits (myself included) have them pegged as a Top 10 team. Needless to say, this appeared to be a matchup a little too difficult for Tulsa. Tulsa also hadn’t beat a Top 5 team since 1996, before any of the current Tulsa players were born. The game itself started rough for the Golden Hurricane, who quickly trailed 15-4 out of the gate. Then a furious 11-0 run got them even at 15. The two teams stayed tight until the half, exchanging leads on four different occassions. In the second half, the Golden Hurricane continued to match baskets with a superior Houston team and did an excellent job overall defensively throughout the second half. With less than a minute to play, Houston’s Marcus Sasser tied the game at 62. On the ensuing possession, Rey Idowu for Tulsa drew a foul and made one of two attempts to get the lead back. UH’s Caleb Mills answered and put Houston ahead by one. In Tulsa’s final possession, Rachal was able to get to the Free Throw line for two high-pressure free throws with one second left. He sunk them both, giving him 20 points on the night and more importantly Tulsa the 65-64 lead that would hold for the major upset victory. HC Frank Haith praised his team, “I thought our guys played with great toughness. Down the stretch we executed. I’m just proud of how we competed.” The effects of the win stayed with Tulsa on Saturday as they played at Cincinnati. Rachal again was a hero, scoring 25 points on 8-11 shooting and grabbing 13 rebounds as Tulsa took down Cincy 70-66. Suddenly, Tulsa is 3-1 in the AAC. Here we go again.

Alabama - We had high hopes for Alabama Basketball this season in our preseason forecast. A projected 5-seed was based on a highly talented roster made of a mixture of parts and the heavy faith in Nate Oats ability to coach great offensive structure. While covering Oats at Buffalo, it was glaring just how well they moved the ball and spread the floor to create open shots. Also, just an overall selfless approach to overall team success permiated across those Buffalo teams. Clearly that will take time to build at Alabama. This season essentially kicked off with a 5th place finish in the Maui Invitational. It was only disappointing because the opening game was a lackluster 18-point loss to Stanford. However a 5th place win over Providence is now aging better. Then two more slip ups happened since then, vs. Clemson in Atlanta and a home loss to Western Kentucky. The loss to Clemson was perhaps more of a setback because this vaunted potential of an Oats-led offense just never showed up that day. Coming into this week the Tide held a 5-3 record with Ole Miss coming in and a brutal road game at Tennessee to open up SEC play. The opener went very well for Bama. Outstanding contributions from the bench (Jahvon Quinerly - 24, John Petty - 13, and Alex Reese -10) led the Tide to a 82-64 drubbing of Ole Miss. The Tide also held Ole Miss to just one 3-pointer all night (1-13). That win had to springboard the confidence level heading into Knoxville. Still, Tennessee had just blown out Mizzou on the road and the game was somewhat overlooked nationally. Once again, three-point defense was Alabama’s friend on Saturday. They stifled Tennessee into 4-21 (19%) shooting from deep and on offense shot the ball beautifully, 10-20 from distance. John Petty is completely back to himself and reentered the starting lineup in this one, adding 19 points and 7 rebounds. Bama’s defensive strategy caused Tennessee stars like Yves Pons and John Fulkerson to have their worst outings of the young season. Final score, Bama 71, Tennessee 63. This makes a significant difference for now on the Alabama tournament resume and gets the Tide on the right side of the bubble.

Check out highlights from John Petty Jr. and the Alabama Crimson Tide as they upset the No. 7 Tennessee Volunteers on the road in SEC action during the 2020-...

Evansville - Time for our miracle story of the week. The Evansville Aces came into Week 6 a 2-5 basketball club with losses to UT Martin and Prairie View A&M. The Aces overall are trying to recover from a mostly disastrous 2019-20 campaign which saw Walter McCarty get suspended and eventually dismissed and a complete dismantling (0-18 in the Valley) of what could’ve been a solid team after beating Kentucky in November of 2019. Veteran Head Coach Todd Lickliter is now doing his best to turn things around. The year started with more bad news when their most talented player, Sam Cunliffe, opted out for the season. The one thing Evansville has managed to do really well this season is effectively hit the three-point shot. They currently rank 37th in the nation in 3FG%, but more impressively they a third in the nation in three-point efficiency. The breakthroughs started showing up for real last Monday. In Game 2 against Southern Illinois on the road, the Aces stunned SIU 84-72. Nebraska transfer Samari Curtis put on a show, scoring 29 points on 6-for-8 three point shooing. The Aces shot 17-for-29 from deep in the game, that is 59%. They also controlled the glass 30-21. UNC Asheville transfer Jax Levich had 10 rebounds, another added piece this season. The SIU upset win led us to a weekend series against preseason league favorite, Northern Iowa. UNI has had their struggles since losing star AJ Green, but they still have talent and were widely expected to handle Evansville. Big mistake. The Aces won game one of the series by amazingly holding UNI to 0-for-11 three point shooting, en route to a 65-61 surprise victory. Evan Kuhlman has paid his dues in Aces’ Purple and Orange, had 21 to lead the offense. In Game two, the Aces managed to bring a bit more offense - connecting on 12 triples as a team and getting a great contribution from Canadian-born vet Shamar Givance. Coach Lickliter is really trusting his rotations, he only used seven players in yet another surprising Aces win, 70-64. Suddenly, Evansville is 5-5 and 3-1 in the MVC. Nobody can overlook them now, this quite a story in the Valley.

Colorado State - Niko Medved has hit year three in his stint as CSU head coach. Medved came into Fort Collins back in 2018-19 with fairly high expectations. After all, he had rebuilt Drake in just one year and really turned around Furman in the four season preceeding that. At CSU, it has been tough to rack the top four of the league. They tied for 5th last season at 11-7. This season they returned Sophomore sensations Isaiah Stevens and David Roddy. On a roster with no seniors, these two were entrusted with helping lead the Rams to the top tier of the Mountain West. The non-conference schedule was a rocky road. Program pauses and cancellations meant they didn’t start their season until December 12th. Coach Medved lined up what games he could. The Rams had a stinker at Saint Mary’s where the infamously only scored 33 points in a 20-point loss. CSU kept working, and scored a road win at Santa Clara and then returned home to sweep Fresno State to open up conference play. That gave the Rams a 6-1 record heading into a very daunting San Diego State road series. Game one took place on Saturday. It would be nearly impossible to match what we witnessed. San Diego State came out hot and playing great defense, and built a 33-7 lead. It looked very much over early. However, the Rams woke up and went on a 19-0 run to cut the lead to single digits. Early in the second half, the Aztecs extended their lead back up to 15 and were very much in control. That’s when another spurt from the Rams came, a 14-0 run cutting the lead to one. Despite no fans being at Viejas Arena, you could hear the electricity on the Colorado State bench. But as the game wore on, the Aztecs reestablished control and built a 67-59 lead with 1:53 remaining. For the third time of the day, the Rams geared up to make a charge. Going on a 11-0 run, highlighted by a game wining four-point play by John Tonje, dramatically propelled Colorado State to the biggest comeback win in Mountain West history, 70-67. Importantly, this win puts CSU back in the conversation for an At-Large for the time being as well. One of the games of the year in 2020-21. Congratulations to Coach Medved and staff on this breakthrough achievement, their first win at San Diego State.

Teams Strongly Considered

Honorable Mention
Seton Hall - SHU went into the Cintas Center and absolutely dominated Xavier, 85-68. The Pirates followed that up by beating Butler over the weekend. Excellent week.

Michigan - Wolverines remained unbeaten with impressive wins at Maryland by 11 and over Northwestern by 19.

Morehead State - Eagles snapped a 13-game losing streak at Murray State and ended Murray State's 25-game home win streak in a 61-56 upset win on Saturday.

Wichita State - Shockers went down to Ole Miss and came away with their 3rd road win of the year, 83-79. Tyson Etienne was brilliant, scoring 29 which included five treys.

Oklahoma - Sooners were able to capitalize on a West Virginia team who just lost their star, Oscar Tschibwe (left team). The 75-71 win was significant for the OU resume.

Bowling Green - Trey Diggs led the Falcons into Athens, Ohio for a key road win over Ohio, 83-75. Diggs had 20 points and 7 boards. Bowling Green capped off the week with a dominant win at NIU.

Clemson - Tigers continued progressing during a real impressive season by taking down Florida State by 10 and winning at Miami.

Wofford - SoCon opening week was a great one for the Terriers. Went into Mercer and played very well, winning by 13. Followed that by beating Samford over the weekend.

Belmont - Victories over Murray State and UT Martin have the Bruins sitting pretty at 4-0 in OVC play. Nick Musczynski is having another stellar year.

UCLA - Bruins overcame the devastating news that All-Pac 12 performer Chris Smith has a torn ACL and is out for the season. UCLA swept Utah and Colorado to move to 3-0 in conference.

Canisius - Impressive two wins over Saint Peter's. Golden Griffins got balanced efforts to grind out wins, Ahamadou Fofana stepped up in Game 2 with 17 Pts, 4 Assists.

Georgia Tech - Yellow Jackets took down North Carolina on Wednesday and followed that up with a blowout victory over Wake Forest. GTech has now won 4 straight.

Cal St. Northridge - Matadors picked up a game against WAC powerhouse, NMSU, on Monday. CSUN was able to capitalize on NMSU's rust to pull off a big 66-63 upset win.

Rice - The Owls managed to pull off a difficult sweep over UTSA in their CUSA openers. Rice now sits at 8-2 overall.

Creighton - Blue Jays extended their win streak to four, by beating Xavier and emphatically taking down Providence at the final second. Christian Bishop's dunk with 0.7 secs left helped the Jays avoid OT.

Eastern Kentucky - Took down Eastern Illinois on Wednesday, 69-61 and followed that by winning at Austin Peay on Saturday. Freshman Wendell Green exploded for 30 points in the win at APSU.

Drake - Bulldogs continue to be the main story in the Valley. Now 12-0 after winning on Monday at Indiana State, and Sunday vs. SIU.

Oral Roberts - 1-2 punch of Kevin Obanor and Max Abmas powered the Golden Eagles to a sweep of Omaha. Obanor had 39/10 in Game 1, 27/12 in Game 2. Abmas 25 points in Game 1, 37 in Game 2.

Little Rock - Trojans took control of the very early Sun Belt title race by sweeping UT Arlington. Ben Coupet was outstanding, scored 27 in Game 1 and 26 in Game 2.

Sam Houston State - Road win at Nicholls State to open up Southland Conference play 1-0. Demarkus Lampley drained 7 threes and finished with 27 Pts./8 Rebs. to lead the Bearkats.

Northern Colorado - Upset road win at Montana to move to 2-1 in Big Sky play on Saturday. Amazingly this is the Bears third straight win in Missoula. Another chance on Monday to win again.

Rhode Island - Rams became the first team to knock off St. Bonaventure, in a 63-57 victory on Wednesday. URI followed that up by beating St. Joe's over the weekend in OT.

Louisiana Monroe - JUCO sensation, now at ULM - Russell Harrison led the Warhawks to a sweep over Arkansas State. Many picked this team to get last place, so a 2-0 start is fantastic for ULM.

Northeastern - Beat a well-coached Elon team twice to open up CAA play 2-0. Huskies played a difficult non-conference schedule, but that should only help prep them for CAA play

Wyoming - In the midst of a big turnaround season. Wyoming won at Fresno State on Saturday to open conference play 1-0. Pokes are 7-1 on the year.

Morgan State - Maybe we shouldn't be so surprised. For the third time the Bears from the MEAC won in a road upset, this time at JMU. Morgan State also won at Iona and Delaware earlier this season.

Oregon - Played well in home sweep of Bay Area schools. The 17-point win over Stanford helps the resume and keeps the Ducks at the top of the Pac-12 alongside UCLA.

Cleveland State - Road sweep at IUPUI to move to an astonishing 6-0 in Horizon League play.

Furman - Paladins held tough to beat Chattanooga on the road in the SoCon opener, 77-73. Furman also beat Mercer in the home SoCon opener over the weekend.

Navy - Kicked off Patriot League play by sweeping Bucknell in Home-Away two game series. Midshipmen at 2-0 are in 1st Place in the league now.

Tulane - Picked up revenge win over East Carolina, 60-56. Jaylen Forbes paced the Green Wave with 20 points and 5 steals.

Siena - After 42-day layoff, the Saints finally opened their season on Sunday. A one-point win over fellow MAAC contender, Monmouth - has Siena out in first for now.

UC Irvine - Finished off the sweep of UCSB on Monday, 73-69. Anteaters were led by Jr., Collin Welp's 16 points and 9 rebounds.

Central Michigan - Chippewas appear to be recovering from a poor 0-3 start. Last Tuesday's 87-60 blowout at EMU is a great sign.

Check back for more posts this week on Bracketology. Enjoy Week 7!
~Rocco

Teams of the Week Awards in College Basketball: Week 5

College Basketball Teams of the Week – Week 5 (December 21-27, 2020)

The Holiday season came at us in full force last week. However that did not stop the Big Ten, the Horizon League, or Missouri Valley from pushing ahead with pivotal league play. In fact, the majority of College Basketball programs managed to get at least a game in last week, and that produced some worthy recpients of this week’s Teams of the Week Awards. In an interesting twist this year, the Big Ten decided to schedule a quadruple header on Christmas Day. It ended up providing four good games, capped off by an OT win by Minnesota over Iowa. More on that soon. Other programs decided to send their players home for the Holidays and take some time off. Just one of the several dilemmas programs face this year as they try to balance the pandemic challenges with attempting to perform at an NCAA Tournament caliber level. Not easy.

This past week brought to us more great stories as the 2020-21 campaign continues to unfold. We highlighted five programs again this week that had memorable weeks. Lets get to the Award winners.

Northwestern celebrates during a 74-67 victory inside Assembly Hall.

Northwestern - When Missouri won back-to-back TOTW Awards, we did our best to explain how rare that was. Perhaps it was a lie. Because we now have Northwestern shattering all previous historical norms for our weekly awards. The Wildcats left us no choice. There was no way to give top honors to anyone but Northwestern, after what we witnessed last week - a road upset win at Indiana, followed by a dramatic home win over Ohio State. Just unthinkable. How is this happening? Let us dive in. Northwestern plays really scrappy, and balanced basketball in a league full of superior talent. The ‘cats are attacking the rim, spacing well, moving the ball, playing aggressive while balanced, and have multiple players willing to take big shots late in games. All of this may make the Wildcats different enough to give them an edge. Regardless of what happens in the future, these team attributes and characteristics certainly showed in both wins last week. In the win at Indiana, Chase Audige made big shot after big shot in a variety of ways (pull ups, clear outs, knife cuts into the lane). We already knew Boo Buie could hit big shots based on the Michigan State-game masterpiece he had. The win over the Hoosiers gave Northwestern a very surprising 2-0 record with a shot at 3-0 when Ohio State visited Welsh-Ryan Arena over the weekend. The game flow was a bit different from the Indiana game, Northwestern was trailing or near tied most of the way. Junior Miller Kopp, the ‘cats leading scorer, had the hot hand and kept them close. He finished with 23 points. But it was Boo Buie who broke a 68-68 tie with about one minute left with stand-still type of three pointer that caught the Buckeyes defense off guard. It was enough for Northwestern to hang on for a 71-70 triumph and the unimaginable 3-0 Big Ten record. Incredible story evolving in Evanston.

Hofstra - Coming into a road game at Richmond, many of us were looking to determine if defending CAA Tournament champions, Hofstra, was really the team to beat still in the CAA or not? After all, we had seen the Pride take three early losses including a tough home loss against Iona. On the other side, was a Richmond team who has had several national headlines in the early season after beating Kentucky and other tournament caliber contenders like Loyola-Chicago. HC Joe Mihalich likes to let his spread the court style allow his shooters to take quality shots, hopefully open looks. Mihalich teams also tend to crash the glass and speed up opposing guards. It allows the Pride the opportunity to go on runs and lead to quick momentum shifts. It led Hofstra to get out of the gate with an 11-0 run against Richmond and an early 18-8 lead. The rest of the first half was mostly back and forth, and the Pride went into the Half with a 36-33 edge. Then it was the Spiders turn to go on a big run, a 14-0 burst to get out in front of Hofstra 55-46. At that moment, it looked like Richmond was out of trouble. Yet, Hofstra had much different plans and quickly recovered with an 11-1 run of their own to regain the advantage. Led by Jalen Ray and Isaac Kante put the Pride on their backs. Kante was a force inside and Ray was deadly from the perimeter. All told, Hofstra shot 70% from three-point range and 70% from the field in the second half and snatched the victory away from Richmond, 76-71. Ray finished with 23, while Kante had a double-double (16/10). It was a spectacular second half performance that really caught Richmond by surprise. This sends a message to the CAA, that Hofstra is still the team to beat and they’re hitting their stride right on the brink of conference play.

MBB: Hofstra vs. Richmond Highlights (12/22/20)

Wisconsin - The jury on this Badgers team has been out since the day they were ranked as high as 4th in the preseason. The jury was out in full force after a tough loss at the buzzer at Marquette. Despite a blowout win over a short-handed Louisville squad, the jury was back for more after somewhat sluggish performance in the win over Nebraska early last week. This all set the stage for Christmas Day in East Lansing. The Badgers were tasked with giving up their Christmas Holiday, and playing in one of the toughest places to win in the nation against a hungry Michigan State team coming off a loss to Northwestern. For Badgers Sr. G D’Mitrik Trice it was a special day. He managed to get his family six tickets, including his brother Travis, who played at Michigan State between 2011-2015. Trice knew he was lucky as only a selected few people were able to attend. He clearly felt the Christmas love that afternoon, as he had a complete performance by scoring a season-high 29 points. Three other Badgers, Aleem Ford, Micah Potter, and Brad Davison also scored in double-figures, as the Badgers went on to score the most points in school history (85) over a ranked opponent in 85-76 victory over MSU. Credit the Badgers for really taking over the second half and showing they are currently a stronger team. This is the kind of win that could mean a lot come time for NCAA Tournament seeding. The win also cements Wisconsin as a top tier team for now. The ridiculous Big Ten makes placing the Badgers a moving target all season long, but they sit in great position to contend for the league championship.

Bryant - The Bulldogs might by the first NEC team to recieve a TOTW Award, and I hope they aren’t the last. Bryant is as entertaining of a team as you will find in College Basketball. They currently ranked 2nd in quickest tempo, 6th in shortest time of possession avg., and 9th in 3-point FG% per the Ken Pomeroy database. These Bulldogs get up and down the court at a rapid pace. They are giving teams fits. A 3-1 NEC start and a close call at Syracuse (1-point loss), has put most of the East Coast on notice now. This all set the stage for a non-conference tussle with UMass. UMass had some A-10 hype coming into the season, and they have a superstar in Tre Mitchell. So this game was circled for us here at Bracketeer.org. By halftime, it was a 48-40 lead for Bryant and extremely fun viewing. You can tell by the score alone, that Bryant was winning the tempo war. And they had several run out fast breaks, which is precisely what HC Jared Grasso wants. Speaking of Grasso, he is as unconventional as you will find in our sport. Not only does he teach and coach this fast break attacking tempo, but he is incredibly aggressive in recruiting transfer players and high school players. It’s a big shakeup for the NEC which has a bit of an old school blue-collar reputation. To call Grasso edgey, would be an understatement. To begin the second half, the Bulldogs opened up a 17-point lead after Michael Green III hit back-to-back threes. UMass would slowly pull closer, led by Carl Pierre’s 23 points. The Minutemen were able to climb all the way back into an 84-84 tie. That is when Green III sliced to the hoop and converted, then intercepted a UMass pass to help secure victory. Bryant left Amherst with a 93-88 win. Green III shattered his previous career high of 24, by putting up 33. Keep your eye on Bryant the rest of the way.

Southern Illinois - Prior to last week, several College Basketball pundits were overlooking SIU’s 5-0 record. After all the Saluki’s had only left Carbondale once, and that was an unsexy opening win at SE Missouri State in overtime. For SIU, this issue was nothing that a little TV boost and road game at a Big East foe couldn’t solve. The Salukis were faced with a road game in Hinkle Fieldhouse against a Butler program holding the nation’s longest non-conference home court winning streak. SIU and second year HC Bryan Mullins has a trio of contributing sophomores. Led by the reigning MVC Frosh of the Year,Marcus Domansk, as well as guards Lance Jones and Trent Brown. The Salukis are also getting outstanding production from Frosh Dalton Banks, a 2-time All-state HS player from Wisconsin. So on paper this SIU team clearly has talent, but perhaps a little premature to think big for this season? Time will tell. At Hinkle, the Salukis let the bright lights hit them early on and stumbled to a 16-9 deficit. That is when some outstanding Saluki defense kicked into high gear, completely breaking down Butler. Butler went on an eight-minute scoring drought, resulting in a 26-2 SIU run. The Salukis would take a commanding 37-24 lead into the break. The second half saw SIU lead by as many as 18, but Butler made a furious rally that almost forced overtime. Brown had the play of the game with 2:40 remaining, converting a rare 4-point play to extend the lead back up to 8. After some late missed free throws by SIU, Butler managed to get the Saluki lead down to 3 and got one final shot after a late turnover. Butler’s 3-point attempt missed, and SIU survived. A valuable game for several reasons, definitely some learning lessons all while getting a program changing win at a Big East venue. Later in the week, SIU opened up MVC play with a 63-57 win over Evansville. Heck of a week for this Saluki Basketball program.

Who was close to receiving top honors?

Honorable Mention:

Norfolk State - Came back from 17-points down to stun George Mason. Spartans are 4-3 now with local bragging right wins over GMU and JMU.

Louisville - Cardinals took care of Pitt on the road and won the Bluegrass State showdown over a hungry Kentucky team. UL close to full strength now, and an ACC contender.

Tulsa - The Golden Hurricane defense was too much for Memphis in a 56-49 rock fight. For Tulsa, it was their first win at Memphis since 2014-15.

Colorado State - Rams became the first team to knock off Santa Clara this season, and did so on the road in a mild upset, 70-57.

Austin Peay - The Gov's exacted revenge on conference rivals Murray State. APSU lost to Murray by 30 earlier in December, came back to Clarksville and got a 74-70 victory.

UC Irvine - Anteaters took down perhaps the Big West favorites, UC Santa Barbara, in the conference opener - 75-56. UCI with an ealry statement.

Illinois - Illini got on track last week by winning by 17 at Penn State and taking care of Indiana at home.

Hampton - Road sweep at Charleston Southern, gets the Pirates to 2-0 in Big South play. Sweeps are tough to find in the 2-game format leagues, especially for road teams.

Gonzaga - Passed another test with ease by beating UVA in Fort Worth, TX. Corey Kispert put on a show with 9 treys and scored 32 in a 98-75 rout.

UNC Wilmington - Seahawks won twice last week and are playing much better. A 19-point win at Campbell and a 24-point cakewalk show that. Having Joe Pridgen eligible is paying big dividends early for UNCW.

Texas Tech - Red Raiders picked up a quality road win at Oklahoma. Terrance Shannon had 21 points before fouling out to lead Tech.

Morgan State - Bears got an impressive 65-59 road win at Delaware last week. Morgan State has also won at Iona this year, and look to be a MEAC contender.

San Diego State - Bounced back from the BYU loss in a major way by blowing out Saint Mary's, 74-49, in a neutral site game.

Wichita State - Shockers went into Tampa and got a key road win in OT against South Florida. Shockers are quietly 2-0 in AAC play after a rocky offseason.

Sam Houston State - Bearkats picked up a road win at UTRGV. SHSU is starting to hit their stride afer a rough start to the year.

Houston - Cougars passed a road test against a hot UCF team, 63-54 and beat Temple earlier in the week.

Portland - Pilots beat Montana State last week, giving the program an amazing 6-2 record. Another game that UP was not expected to win, but they gutted it out.

Oakland - Grizzlies had a brutal schedule and started 0-9. Last week they knocked off rivals Detroit Mercy twice on the road, to pull to 2-2 in conference.

Idaho State - Split series at Northern Colorado. Bengals played well in both games, winning the second game by 15 points was eye opening.

Sacred Heart - Double OT win at Wagner came the day after getting beat by 28. Pioneers showed a lot of poise in the second game.

Enjoy Week 6 everyone!
~Rocco MIller

Teams of the Week in College Basketball: Week 4 Awards

College Basketball Teams of the Week – Week 4 (December 14-20, 2020)

Another week has been recorded in the 2020-21 College Basketball journal. Week 4 gave us plenty of surprises, realizations about programs, and emerging stars. Some quick observations include the back-to-back game format adopted by several conferences has been going on now in certain leagues for the past few weeks. The losing team in game one, has almost always come back hungrier in game two. We are seeing splits more often than not, and I think that will keep several conference races tight. The teams who do earn sweeps (like Milwaukee and others this past week) will likely get recognition from us here each week, quite frankly it is hard to win back-to-backs. Another observation is, this season continues to be like no other with teams coming and going on pause. The committee has an impossible task on how to weigh all of those factors, plus the diminshing meaning of home-court advantage this season is a unique challenge as well.

Without further ado - lets get to the Team Awards:

UCF’s Brandon Mahan was locked in against Florida State.

UCF - HC Johnny Dawkins and the UCF staff did something unique when the scheduling turmoil hit full climax. They deciding on playing just four non-conference games, but against big-time competition. Those four were Auburn, Michigan, Florida State, and Oklahoma. The Oklahoma game was ultimately canceled. That left the Knights hosting Auburn during the early part of the year and beating an Auburn team suffering from some early season unrest. A trip to Ann Arbor, where UCF was beaten pretty badly by Michigan, 80-58. 13 days later, the Knights were finally tasked with a game at Florida State. Nationally, many had overlooked the Knights in this game. After all, we didn’t know enough about UCF, but we did know that Florida State had wins over Indiana and Florida, plus has an ACC title to defend this season. So the expectations were non-existent for UCF coming into gameday. Then the game started, we witnessed a first half full of crazy runs. First, FSU went on a 13-0 run to go up 21-13. Then, UCF had their own 13-0 run to claim a 32-29 lead. Not to be outdone by FSU’s 13-2 run that led to a 5-point Seminole halftime lead and stretched into part of the second half. Coach Dawkins may have said some wise words at Halftime because the Knights really came ready once the second half had some rhythm to it. Texas A&M transfer Brandon Mahan, who played at UCF last year and averaged 7.5 PPG, went off in the second half - scoring 26 of his 32 in the half. Mahan appears to have made a major leap from last season. Isaiah Adams is a true freshman from Jacksonville, played tremendously well and added 22 (including 9 free throws). Sophomore Darin Green put up 20 of his own points. Between the trio of Mahan, Green, and Adams - they combined for 74 of UCF’s 86 points. All of this led to a stunning 86-74 win at Donald L. Tucker Center in Tallahassee going away. UCF is now 2-1 heading into AAC play, it remains to be seen if they will find more non-conference games or not. In any event, the Knights are quickly a team to watch in the AAC race.

BYU - Not many programs have had the luxury to play nine games this year, but the Cougars have been fortunate. Their schedule resembles mixed results as close to a normal season as you can find. HC Mark Pope believes in playing the toughest possible schedule, as he should. Pope is quite aggressive about it. BYU shifted and turned several times during the offseason to ensure they would play quality teams. They ended up in Connecticut for two games where they split two games against St. John’s and USC. BYU also have had to go over a roster makeover this season. Out are the all-star guards Jake Toolson and Tyler Haws, in are massive front line players highlighted by Purdue transfer Matt Haarms. The strategy this season is mostly transformational, but Pope doesn’t mind - he embraces it. That leads us to another big test in San Diego against from MWC rivals San Diego State. The Aztecs have been featured here in past weeks, been an outstanding team early on with wins at Arizona State, over UCLA, and an unblemished record. From my perspective, this was a matchup nightmare for San Diego State. Not many teams out-physical the Aztecs, however this Cougar front-line is built to disrupt and wreak havoc on opposing front-lines. BYU ended up with a 40-26 rebounding edge in Viejas, which just really jumps off the page. BYU played a near perfect first half and at one point led by 17. In the second half, the Aztecs behind Matt Mitchell, made a tremendous rally to cut to a one-point game. Then it was Brandon Averette’s opportunity to shine, hitting an ice cold triple to distance BYU from the Aztecs for good. Highlights below.

Highlights from the BYU Men's Basketball 72 to 62 win at #18 San Diego State. December 18, 2020 #BYUhoops #GoCougs

Northwestern - Unexpectedly, we welcome Northwestern to their first ever Team of the Week award. This Wildcat program has been through a lot of losing in a loaded Big Ten. 2020-21 brings a clean slate, and it also brought a Top team in the league and perennial Big Ten power, Michigan State. After all, Northwestern hadn’t beat a top-five team since 1979. But these Cats didn’t care, they came equiped for a battle. Boo Buie, Northwestern’s formerly streaky scorer, has been much more steady early on this season. Buie, had a career-high 30, hit five of six from distance in the game. Buie is also averaging 5.6 Assists per game. Northwestern did a tremendous job with ball movement, assisting 19 of their 26 made field goals, en route to a 79-65 upset over Michigan State. The Wildcats took advantage of a somewhat lethargic Spartan defense. Despite an earlier home loss to Pitt, a win like this puts Northwestern back on the map for potential at-large teams. The Big Ten will be rugged, no doubt, but this is a moment that many folks associateed with Northwestern Basketball won’t forget. Well done, ‘cats.

Chattanooga - The Mocs’ could be for real. Before we deep dive on yet another promising SoCon program, let’s rewind to last season. The SoCon was loaded with quality teams a year ago, headlined by ETSU, UNCG, and Furman. However, this Chattanooga program quietly battled their way to a 10-8 league record and knocked off UNC-Greensboro in their finale. They then faced UNCG again in the Conference Quarterfinals and beat the Spartans again! That got the Mocs into a surprise semifinal against Wofford, where they fell by two in a tough loss. That lead to the long offseason and a team who returned a few key players, but also dealt with the loss of Ramon Vila (opted to return to Spain), two departing seniors, Maurice Commander (transferred to UIC), Rod Johnson (transferred to WIU). That meant the only returning starter from the SoCon tourney run was David Jean-Baptiste, a 6-1 experienced guard. But Jean-Baptiste himself, is now in the Transfer Portal as of December 12th.. So this Mocs team is a mash up of mostly newcomers and the job Lamont Paris has done has been outstanding through all of it. Since the Jean-Baptiste departure, redshirt Freshman Jamaal Walker has taken on a much larger role, and Walker is making it pay off by leading the SoCon in 3-point FG percentage. This all leads us to this past week. Another patchwork job by Coach Paris got the Mocs past UNC-Asheville in a mid-week game, 69-66, and setup an undefeated showdown with UAB in Birmingham. Both teams entered 7-0, with very different paths to get there. The Mocs had already played and won in each of their three previous road tests. UAB had only left Birmingham once and had not hosted a team in the Top 280 in KenPom prior to the showdown with the Mocs. So what happened? Chattanooga banded together and fought, especially on the defensive end of the floor. They held UAB to just 3-for-16 shooting from deep. This allowed the Mocs to be in it all the way through. They trailed by a possession with around a minute to go, and held UAB scoreless on three straight trips to end it. On the offensive end, a great ball movement possession landed in Jamaal Walker’s hands, who hit the eventual game winner with 19.9 seconds to go. Malachi Smith stretched the lead to three in the closing seconds with a free throw. Mocs held on for amazingly their second 69-66 victory of the week (yes, the UNCA win had the same score). Chattanooga is 8-0 and leads the nation in D1 wins, despite the rollercoaster roster changes.

Rutgers - Steve Pikiell’s legend continues to grow in Piscataway before our very eyes. If you are reading this, you likely know about the major breakthroughs from last season that led to some raised expectations in 2020-21. Ron Harper, Jr. is back in the fold and in a big way. Jacob Young has been outstanding. And the Scarlet Knights offense is fundamentally sound, ranking 7th in the country in Non-Steal TO% (essentially a lack of unforced errors). This week introduced Big Ten play, beginning with a road game at Maryland. Last year, road games were the achilles heel for Rutgers, going 2-8 away from the RAC (including a loss at Maryland last February). This year’s visit to the Xfinity Center in College Park was much different. After a back and forth first half, left RU trailing by 1 at Halftime, the Scarlet Knights bursted out for a 13-2 run and built up a 12-point lead with 10 minutes to go. The Scarlet Knights would not look back, proceeding to a 74-60 victory. That set the stage for a nationally hyped showdown with Illinois at the RAC. This contest was a treat to view, as Rutgers just flat out outhustled and outplayed a very talented Illinois team. Ron Harper, Jr. had 28 points and 9 rebounds. He would later say, "We have a dog mentality, a pack mentality and we're going to attack you every time we get between those lines." Such is a way of life in today’s Rutgers Basketball world. A late 16-3 run helped push Rutgers past Illinois, 91-88 on Sunday. The Scarlet Knights are slowly bringing back Geo Baker now as well, which really helps their outlook as we move ahead. Congrats to RU on a tremendous start, now its time to focus on Ohio State this Wednesday in Columbus.

Strongly Considered Teams with reasoning:

Honorable Mention:

UTEP - Miners stunned Arizona State on Wednesday, 76-63 in Tempe. Senior Bryson Williams came to play - 22 Pts./10 Rebs.

Purdue - Boilermakers came away with a great week. Picking up wins over Ohio State and Notre Dame. Goes a long way for the Boilers' tourney hopes.

Charlotte - 49ers turned things around this week by beating rivals Davidson at Belk Arena, 63-52. Charlotte also took care of business against NC A&T.

Cleveland State - Road sweep at Purdue Fort Wayne, to spoil the openers for the Horizon League newcomers. JUCO Transfer D'Moi Hodge had an unreal 46 points on 10 treys on Sunday.

Providence - Friars left the Prudential Center with a crucial OT win at Seton Hall. AJ Reeves hit the three in the corner to win it.

Montana - Griz won at Washington for the first time ever, 66-58. UW is down this year, but this was a major win for Montana, following a tough 0-4 start to the year.

Richmond - Built on their impressive resume by beating a tough Loyola-Chicago team in Indianapolis, and also dominated Vandy on the road.

Alabama A&M - 2OT win over South Alabama. Bulldogs only scheduled two non-conference games this season and won both against Sun Belt and SoCon schools.

South Florida - Bulls snapped a 13-game road losing streak at Cincinnati and got over the hump by beating the Bearcats, 74-71 on Wednesday.

UC Santa Barbara - Gauchos improved to 4-1 with an impressive road win at Pepperdine. JaQuori McLaughlin had a fantastic game - 23 Pts./8 Assists/4 Reb's.

Georgia - Bulldogs took down Cincinnati by 15 in an upset win. UGA played very well through GMU transfer Justin Kier (18 pts/3 assts) and Sahvir Wheeler (12 Pts/7 assts)

Kansas - Jayhawks squeaked by Texas Tech in Lubbock to move to 7-1. Important win as KU pursues yet another Big XII Championship.

Dayton - Flyers knocked off Ole Miss in a crucial out of conference home game. Dayton can now also boast - "Egg Bowl Champs", since they also beat Mississippi State.

Wisconsin - Impact week. Took care of Loyola-Chicago late for a 14-point win, then handed Louisville their worst loss since the 1950's.

Virginia Tech - Important win over Clemson to get on track and give the Tigers their first loss. Hokies also took down Coppin State over the weekend.

Georgia State - Avenged an earlier loss against Mercer. Ga. State played exceptionally better in the 88-81 win and handed Mercer their first loss.

Milwaukee - Panthers picked up the road sweep over rivals Green Bay. It's early, but in-conference sweeps have been rare in the league with B2B formats.

Stanford - Key win over Arizona in Santa Cruz, gets the Cardinal in position for a run in the Pac-12 race. Cardinal also beat CSUN on the road.

Marist - Red Foxes won twice at Manhattan, and are a surprising 5-1 now on the campaign. Frosh Ricardo Wright is making progress, scored 18 in the second game at Manhattan.

High Point - HPU went on the road and pounded CAA-member William & Mary by 22. Four Panthers finished in double-figures.

Xavier - XU had a tremendous Big East opener. Musketeers and Marquette played a great game, finished off by a Adam Kunkel buzzer-beater to win it!

Wichita State - Shockers got off on the right foot in AAC play by winning at rival Tulsa, 69-65.

Iona - Coach Pitino had his Gaels ready for a road series with Rider over the weekend. Gaels came away with a sweep, and are now in a tie for first in the MAAC.

Air Force - Split series in Reno against Nevada, for a program who has never won in Reno before deserves a mention. Congrats Falcons!

Florida A&M - Been traveling everywhere, got an upset win at Austin Peay on Tuesday.

Week 5 looks to be lighter with the Holidays approaching, but several schools who need games will hopefully be on the court, and the B1G setup a blockbuster quadruple header for Christmas Day. Happy Holidays, Hoop lovers.

~Rocco

‘Trust the process,’ How Abilene Christian’s Joe Golding built a D-II program into an NCAA tournament team in less than a decade

A transition to D-1, three athletic directors and now the COVID-19 pandemic, Abilene Christian head coach Joe Golding has had to face his fair share of adversity during his ten-year tenure at the small Texas school.

“I was a high school basketball coach and then to make this transition I think God has given me a death wish for coaching,” he joked.

HC Joe Golding brings his fun personality to regular press conferences

Still though, that hasn’t stopped him from building up one of the more respectable mid-major programs in the entire country. Collegeinsider.com currently has the program ranked 22 among mid-majors. This year alone, they have already beaten Austin Peay, who is ranked 11th in the same rankings, and only fell to No. 17 Texas Tech by seven this past Wednesday.

This success isn’t new to the 2020-21 team, as Abilene Christian would’ve made four consecutive postseason appearances had last year’s postseason tournaments not been canceled due to the pandemic. This four-year stretch was highlighted by the 2018-19 season when Abilene Christian won the Southland Conference tournament and made the NCAA tournament, both for the first time in school history.

These accomplishments, while obviously making Golding a very proud man, are not what he focuses on now though. Instead he tells his players, “Trust the process.” He laughs at how cliche that phrase is, but made a point to note that it’s how to keep his team focused on the right things. Focused on the goal of improving each and every day, instead of focusing on months down the line about where they could end up on selection Sunday if they managed to win the conference. To not worry about non-conference records, even though their team sits an impressive 5-1 with the lone loss being that almost upset against Texas Tech, and to just focus on getting stronger and better. Focus on making small improvements in their individual abilities each and everyday, so that the team is ready for conference season. As winning the conference is really the only realistic way a school in the Southland has at making the NCAA tournament.

ACU is off to a tremendous start in 2020-21, and perhaps have quickly become the favorites to win the Southland Conference.

To sum up all of that, he simply sticks with the phrase, “Trust the process.” Again, it can come off as a cliche phrase but that’s only because it’s a lot easier to trust the Albiene Christian process now. It’s easy to trust a process that has a team 5-1 and one of the top mid-major programs in the country. It’s easy to trust a process that gives a program like Texas Tech a run for their money. It’s easy to trust a process that you can clearly see is working.

That wasn’t the case when the program switched to D-1 before the 2013-14 season. That year, the team’s first five games were losses to Duquesne University (94-75), St. Bonaventure University (75-47), University of Maryland (67-44), University of Iowa (103-41) and Texas Christian University (71-64). The team also had to go up against Xavier University (93-65) that non-conference season, marking six games against tough opponents. 

“It was the most challenging thing I have ever done,” he said. “I think back, I probably would’ve done some things different, but I don’t know if it would’ve made a difference.”

They didn’t get their first D-1 victory as a D-1 team until they defeated conference-foe University of Central Arkansas on a last-second goaltending call. ACU player Parker Wentz had taken the ball across the court in 4.4 seconds before throwing up the lay-up. Tirrell Brown of UCA, who had just hit their go-ahead lay-up, pinned the ball against the backboard as time expired. After a huddle by the officials, goaltending was called and ACU’s D-1 success finally could get started.

It is one of Golding’s favorite memories. And it was really the first time he could say, “Trust the process” without anyone questioning the process itself. Even if, as a young coach, he was still setting measurable goals himself on how many games to strive to win each year, a habit he didn’t break till he became a more seasoned head coach.

Even if he finally got the monkey off the program’s back by winning that game, “trusting the process” was still difficult for his players. As a new D-1 member, Abilene Christian had to wait four years to participate in their conference tournament. The early goal of the program was to raise money and get some exposure. In order to do that, they had to schedule games against programs willing to pay them money to get an easy win on national television. And while no non-conference season was ever as tough as that first one was for ACU, they still had to go up against programs like Nebraska and Oklahoma in the following seasons. And while the athletic department was forced to suffer from these potentially moral-crushing defeats, they went through three different leaders at the top. All three though stayed committed to Golding and his process. That commitment from the school finally being rewarded with their first D-I conference championship in 2019.

It wasn’t just a commitment from the department though as much as it was from Golding and his staff as a whole. Golding is an alumnus from Abilene Christian, both a former player and assistant coach for the basketball program. He estimates that he has spent 17 years there, which is almost 50% of his entire life given he is just 45 years old.

Golding got commitment from his staff, many of which have stayed with him through the egregious transition process. And that’s not to mention the talented players he was able to recruit early on in his tenure.

Which is pretty amazing, as evident by the way Golding talked about those early days. He said if he was a parent of a recruit, he would have told his kid to choose another school. Sometimes it was tough to put on the Abilene Christian t-shirt when he was recruiting in the early days of his head coaching career. Mainly because there wasn’t a whole lot to promise these kids at the time. They weren’t allowed to compete for a conference championship, they were scheduled to play a lot of tough games solely to raise funds for the program and, like any transitioning program, they struggled to win during the early years. Still though, he managed to find commitment from his guys and what he sells now is a form of community among his team. He mentioned that he likes his players to play hard on the court, and love each other off of it. He values those relationships he can build with his players heavily, and given the quick rise of the program since joining D-I, it’s evident that those relationships are building.

“There’s a respect there now. We’re validating our vision,” he said. “We don’t have to sell a vision, they can see what we’re doing.”

Now that his program is built, it’s only fitting that he has another daunting challenge to deal with. Although this one is much different from the others. He doesn’t consider the challenges in staying competitive while the schedule is constantly in flux due to the pandemic as difficult as the task of transitioning to D-I was approximately eight years ago. Still, it’s different. Those challenges were predictable while these ones are not. 

He considers himself lucky though. Most of his players are experienced and have already spent time in his system. Only four of his 15 players are Freshman and ten of them have been with his program for at least three years now. He considers this a major advantage for his program, as the consistently changing practice schedule wouldn’t hurt his team of veterans as much as it would hurt a team made up of mostly Freshman, JUCOs and transfers.

It also means that his players are perhaps motivated to get back to the tournament that they were denied a year ago. While his team wasn’t a lock to make the NCAA Tournament, they still had a double-bye in their conference tournament which put them in a good chance at making it for a second consecutive season. Both tournaments were canceled though, which Golding stressed was the right decision, and the players missed out on a chance to win back-to-back conference titles.

The path to the Southland Championship will likely have to go through the Teague Center.

Golding admits that is hard to get out of a player’s mind and can see it causing motivation, but he still stresses his players to “trust the process.” The process of getting a little better each and everyday. The process that has turned this D-II school into a D-I mid-major powerhouse. The process of battling adversity by simply striving to get better.

And now 2020 has brought new adversity to his program and, so far, they have responded well. The last question I asked Golding was if he thought that the difficulties he has faced over the last decade helped him prepare for the difficulties of this year. He said that he hasn’t really thought about that, but he thinks it’s taught him to fight adversity.

Of course he hasn’t thought about it, because that would mean that he’d be violating the very thing that he says to trust. The process that got him to 2020. The process that got him through two divisions and three athletic directors. The process that has prepared him to deal with the uncertainty of an ever-changing landscape in 2020. And the very same process that he will use to get through 2020.

All he has to do is, “trust the process.”

--

Logan Carney
Bracketeer.Org Contributor

Teams of the Week in College Basketball: Opening Week

Dream week for the Hokies. Got Villanova to play them last minute, then beat the Wildcats

College Basketball Teams of the Week – Week 1 (November 25-29, 2020)

Virginia Tech – A ton of bricks hitting me unsuspectedly. That’s what it felt like after the Hokies took down Villanova, 81-73, in overtime on Saturday evening and I suddenly realized how capable this Hokies team is of having a big season. It felt this way because I did not have them in the preseason bracket or very close to it, despite picking V-Tech to be my darkhorse ACC team. Even more impressive, before this week started the Hokies were only supposed to play Radford in the opener and South Florida at the Mohegan Sun on Sunday. That all changed when Mike Young and Villanova HC Jay Wright got on the phone late on Thursday evening, and struck a deal to have the Hokies arrive at Connecticut’s Mohegan Sun Casino a day early, to make this game happen. Both schools were impacted by Temple shutting down their program, and the game was a fit on both sides.

In the Radford opener, Virginia Tech struggled most of the first half until a 12-2 run sparked the Hokies into the lead for good. Radford hung around in the second half for a while, but the Hokies left Blacksburg with a 77-62 season opening victory. It truthfully wasn’t the kind of win that left you thinking they would battle Villanova tooth and nail. Yet, Virginia Tech and Villanova indeed battled hard on Saturday night. The Hokies took the lead at 64-62 with 1.3 seconds remaining on a traditional three-point play by Keve Aluma, who scored on a beautiful assist from Cartier Diarra, and then unintentionally made his free throw. Villanova’s Justin Moore then drew a charge on Justyn Mutts on the inbounds play and Moore’s two made free throws sent the game into overtime tied at 64. Mutts made up for that mistake by scoring the first five points in extra time and the Hokies never relinquished the lead, outscoring the Wildcats 17-9 in the extra frame en route to a 87-79 major victory. Villanova was a preseason #2 seed and are the favorites to win the Big East. Hokies had more business to handle this week, as the took on the South Florida Bulls on Sunday evening. The Hokies finished off a perfect 3-0 week by beating USF, 76-58, behind 26 points from Aluma and 25 from Tyrece Radford.  
 
Richmond – Let’s not forget how the Richmond Spiders finished the 2019-20 season. From February 1st through the abrupt ending of the season, the Spiders tore apart A-10 competition by going 9-1 and playing their way back inside the NCAA Tournament bubble. This preseason, Richmond received well-deserved hype and brought back the core of their roster, led by Jacob Gilyard, Blake Francis, and Grant Golden. Then a setback occurred with the loss of Nick Sherod with an ACL tear for the season, however Richmond still possessed the depth needed for an A-10 Title run this year.

That brings us to the start of this season, where Richmond joined the four-team Kentucky event in a round-robin format. The Spiders opened later than expected after Detroit Mercy was a late exit from the event, due to Covid-19 concerns. Spiders would ultimately be left with two games, Morehead State and Kentucky. Richmond cruised to an 82-64 vicotry against the Eagles in the opener, led by Nathan Cayo’s 23 points and Tyler Burton’s 12 rebounds. Then the big test came on Sunday against hosts, Kentucky. The first half was back and forth between the two squads, with UK taking a 32-28 lead into halftime. The second half was a completely different story. Francis and Cayo powered the Spiders to its first road victory over an AP Top 10 team in school history, by scoring 18 points a piece. Richmond ran away with a 76-64 triumph. This will do wonders for Richmond’s at-large tournament hopes and for the Spiders confidence moving forward. A couple sneaky games coming this week for Richmond, at Charleston and vs. Furman – but let’s allow Richmond to celebrate for today.

Gonzaga – The Bulldogs started the year as our #1 overall seed, and it didn’t take long to show why. The Zags had the rare opportunity to face Kansas in a season-opening game down in Fort Myers, after a series of cancellations and shifting over the offseason. Gonzaga came ready to dominate despite traveling across the country and having a few Covid complications with their team personnel. The Kansas win (102-90) was a track meet, that not even a powerhouse like Kansas was ready for. They fluid ball movement and ball handling mastery of Freshman phenom Jalen Suggs (8 assists and 24 points) were too much for the Jayhawks. Drew Timme picked up where he left off from last season, by adding 25 points and six boards. And Corey Kispert, who may be the most important player to any one team’s roster in the country, added 23. Kispert has always displayed a tremendously high level of Basketball IQ and focus on the court, and clearly makes his teammates better. He continues to impress me each year. The Bulldogs followed their emphatic Kansas win up by beating Auburn 90-67. Gonzaga led by double-figures for most of the game, got 28 from Timme and 25 from Kispert. Gonzaga is scheduled to play Baylor this coming Saturday, must watch TV.

Abilene Christian – ACU is only in their 8th season as a D1 program. The former D2 powerhouse in most athletics, made the jump to D1 Basketball ahead of the 2013-14 season. By year six, Head Coach Joe Golding had led his Wildcats to their first NCAA Tournament. After going 20-11 last year, many had the Wildcats in the top three of the Southland alongside juggernaut Stephen F. Austin, and up and coming Nicholls State. However, when reviewing the Gulf Coast Showcase bracket (which changed a few times), ACU was somewhat of an afterthought.  After all, ETSU a darling from last season was there and a hyped Austin Peay team came in as the likely favorites. It just so happens that those two teams were up first for ACU. And the Wildcats were more than ready. They blitzed ETSU to kickoff College Basketball season, 70-47, and made a statement. On Friday, they took on Austin Peay and got a very impressive 80-72 victory. In Saturday’s finale, the Wildcats capped off a tournament title by beating Omaha 70-58. For the tournament, ACU held opponents to just 19% shooting from 3 point land, while shooting 54.5% themselves. We are nine days away from ACU at Texas Tech, could be very interesting. For the time being, congrats to the Wildcats on an outstanding Gulf Coast Showcase Title run.

Houston – The Cougars were a hotly debated preseason team among College Basketball’s finest pundits. We landed with Houston as a preseason #5 seed and the clear favorites to win the AAC. As games went on this week, we saw Memphis drop two games in South Dakota, Tulsa lose twice in KC, South Florida had lost, overall the AAC picture was prematurely looking rough. Then knowing Houston’s big non-conference games were Texas Tech and Alabama, this game on Sunday with the Red Raiders suddenly felt even bigger. The Cougars were beyond ready for the test. UH opened up a 37-19 edge at Halftime. Texas Tech made a couple of runs in the second half, but Houston held them off at every turn and went home with a crucial 64-53 victory. Marcus Sasser, Quentin Grimes, Justin Gorham all played a significant role in the victory. Houston also beat Boise State 68-58 and Lamar 89-45 earlier in the week. Just what the doctor ordered if you are a UH supporter.

Strongly Considered

Mercer – Bears went into Georgia Tech and thoroughly beat the Yellow Jackets, 83-73.
West Virginia – Won Bad Boy Mowers Tournament. Clearly stronger than South Dakota St., VCU, Western Kentucky in each round
Clemson – Won the Space Coast Challenge over Mississippi State and looked great in win over Purdue.
Saint Louis – Beat LSU in a key opportunity to build resume, also crushed SIU-Edwardsville in opener.
Georgia State – Won at Georgia Tech in 4OT thriller. Moses Wright had 31 points and 20 boards.

Others Considered

Enjoy the upcoming games in Week 2!

~Rocco Miller