Inside College Hoops

Head Coach Exclusives: Todd Golden, San Francisco

The San Francisco Dons program is rich with history. The 2022 season has a great chance to build on such legendary great teams from the 50s, 60s, and 70s. The USF program has also been great to this website over the years.

This season, we have the world’s of Dons Basketball and Bracketology have collided, as the San Francisco Dons are seeking their first At-Large bid in 40 years (1982) and first overall bid since 1998.

This was the ideal moment for:

  • Reflecting on a memorable season

  • Dive deeper into successful winning analytics

  • WCC Tournament Preview

  • Bracketology feelings, thoughts, perspective

FULL INTERVIEW

Saint Mary's 67, Gonzaga 57 Recap

POSTGAME

Randy Bennett gave us 11 minutes to review perhaps the biggest win in the history of the UCU Pavilion.

HIGHLIGHTS

FINAL STATS

FINAL THOUGHTS

Saint Mary’s came in more than prepared for Gonzaga in a game where 24-year old Point Guard Tommy Kuhse once again provided unflappable leadership. The Gaels’ defense came together in a fashion that few people thought was possible before the game. A real commitment to team defense, unselfish play, and doubling Drew Timme in the post, paid significant dividends for SMC. Kyle Bowen came through with the two big threes late as Coach Bennett touched on above. It was a magical night for the Gaels, who suddenly find themselves in the conversation for a 5-seed and the upside to be a top-four seed with a second win over Gonzaga in the WCC Tournament.

On Gonzaga: Watched the Bulldogs play two vastly different games this week. Against San Francisco, GU was able to get and create a ton of open looks and gain a lead early and run with it. Tonight against Saint Mary’s it was almost a polar opposite result. Gonzaga was taken out of their game - practically from the opening tip onward. Saint Mary’s had the personnel and maturity to race back on defense following a make or a miss. Most teams do not, like 95% of the country does not. Gonzaga will get into the tournament and likely overwhelm their first two opponents. Once they are in the Regional rounds, I am very curious to see who they match up with. Bigger and older teams can potentially give Gonzaga trouble. I believe a team needs both of these characteristics to pull it off. This formula could give a potential upset some legs, however, it still takes a well or perfectly executed game plan to beat the Bulldogs. Otherwise, Gonzaga remains a likely favorite in each game the rest of the season.

It’s a game I won’t soon forget. 2022 has been kind to me. Earlier this year I was in Columbus to see #1 Duke lose at Ohio State. To see the top team get beat twice in the same season takes both luck and fortune. Thank you all for following along. March promises to be special.

Postgame Audio: Santa Clara at San Francisco - Todd Golden

Todd Golden’s thoughts after an 88-85 victory over Santa Clara.

  • Dons are 17-5, 4-3 WCC

  • Todd Golden picked up career win #50 in his young career

  • Golden talks about the talent of Santa Clara and how difficult they were to defend.

Golden 01.29

Postgame Video: Herb Sendek

Herb Sendek was gracious and proud in defeat today.

  • Satisfied with the way his Broncos have played this week in two impressive performances.

  • Acknowledged how stressful the game was late

  • Discussed having everyone back at full strength

Weekend Bracket Watch: January 28th-30th

Time to prepare you for another critical weekend! A very busy couple of days of important College Hoops action is right in front of us. With around 175 games happening between now and Sunday, refer to this guide as to which games mean the most in this week’s Bracket Watch.

Each week, the games previewed for this column are most clearly divided into three critical 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.

Our top five favorite games in each grouping were selected for the coming weekend.

Can anyone cool off Marquette? The Providence Friars and a Northeast Winter Storm will do their best this weekend.

HEAVYWEIGHT GAMES

5. Tennessee at Texas, Saturday, 8PM EST, ESPN
Rick Barnes returns to Austin! Great storylines for this one. Yet, the first thing that jumped off the page in the Coach Beard press conference on Thursday was that BEVO, the renowned football live mascot, was going to be making a special appearance for this game. I have no context on how rare this is, but it seems like a BIG deal. That factor combined with the Longhorns’ dominance over TCU on the road earlier this week, has me thinking Texas has all of the right momentum heading in. For Tennessee, they have outstanding predictive metrics going for them. Yet, they still lack any real substance away from Knoxville on their resume. The best win is still the North Carolina win back in November at the Mohegan Sun. UNC has since regressed into bubbleland. Both the Vols and Horns put the clamps down defensively, ranking in the Top 13 in Adj. Defensive Efficiency. A real key will be if Texas can avoid committing turnovers against a Tennessee team that is Top 10 nationally in forcing them. A lot of Orange for all in this primetime matchup and a key game for each squad’s resume.

Bevo is celebrating his 7th Birthday inside of a Hoops Arena? That’s the word on the street.

4. Ohio State at Purdue, Sunday, Noon EST, CBS
Purdue looks to be in great form coming off of a 83-73 dominant road win at Iowa on Thursday. Jaden Ivey returned to the lineup off the bench and looked his usual self - scoring 15 points and mostly filling the box score. Also, looking good for Purdue is playing in Mackey Arena, where the Boilermakers are 10-1 on the season with most wins being a typical blowout. The Ohio State Buckeyes enter this one by coming off a road victory of their own at Minnesota on Thursday. The Buckeyes had a nine-day break prior to Minnesota and looked fresh. The Buckeye-Boiler matchup presents a clash in the paint with Zach Edey/Trevion Williams going against EJ Liddell, Kyle Young, and Zed Key. We saw three of these matchups in ‘20-21, where it was these Buckeyes who eliminated Purdue in Overtime from the B1G Tournament. Boilers however swept the regular season series in two nail-biters. If this is anything like last year, expect it to come down to the wire. A Buckeye road win here would provide a resume game-changer. Currently, Ohio State’s best win away from home is Seton Hall (which has recently lost some of its luster).

3. Baylor at Alabama, Saturday, 4PM ET, ESPN
Inconsistency, Maturity, Chemisty all appear to be off for Bama coming off another disheartening loss at Georgia. The big gaping hole however, is three-point execution. They showed it vs. Gonzaga (13 makes - 38% success rate). But overall, the Tide are just under 31% on the season and that ranks 296th out of 358 squads. Baylor holds opponents to 29.4% makes, not good news on a key front. From last year's team. Bama lost Josh Primo/Jordan Bruner/Alex Reese - who combined to hit 99 triples. John Petty, Jr. also gone - made 77 triples by himself. That’s been harder to make up for then originally thought. On the good side, Tide are 9-1 in Coleman Coliseum (Elite wins over Houston, LSU, Tennessee), and this game should be electric. Baylor just got the services of Jeremy Sochan back and will be curious to see how much he can bring after playing 21 minutes in his return. Keep in mind - Baylor is undefeated when Sochan plays. Alabama will really need to rise to the occasion in order to be successful in this one.

2. Marquette at Providence, Sunday, 12:30 PM ET, FS1
You would be hard-pressed to find a matchup between two hotter teams than this. I don’t think any team has taken the nation by storm in recent weeks quite like the Marquette Golden Eagles. Winners of seven in a row, that list includes away wins at Villanova and at Seton Hall. A rare thing to see Marquette have so much success on the East Coast trips. Credit to HC Shaka Smart and the team he’s been able to build and get to gel. Marquette is ninth in the country in assists per game (17.6), that begins to show how effective they are at sharing the rock. Justin Lewis has exploded onto the scene during this streak, he has scored in double-figures in each game, avoids foul trouble and gets an adequate amount of rebounds. He’s been so analytically valuable to this Marquette team that KenPom now has him as the third highest-rated player in the Big East! The Friars also have a lot to brag about as well. This team is 17-2 and finds all kinds of ways to win despite missing AJ Reeves lately. In this matchup the Friars should be able to get to the foul line with regularity, and its a home game so that could really tilt to their advantage. Marquette will need to stick to what they do best to pull off another major road win: Protect the ball, find their teammates, take great shots. Should be a dandy at the Dunk.

1. Kentucky at Kansas, Saturday, 6PM, ET, ESPN
This will be a well-hyped blockbuster coming to you in Primetime at the Phog. The Wildcats have looked sharp lately and hope to get Tyty Washington back in time for this key matchup. The ‘Cats really struggled without him earlier this week in an overtime win at home over Mississippi State. Conventional wisdom certainly favors the Jayhawks, especially if Tyty is missing. Kansas is coming off an exhausting double overtime thrilling win over Texas Tech. Do they have another war in their tank? Kentucky is really searching for an elite win to match their elite metrics, can they pull this one off?

BUBBLE GAMES

5. Virginia at Notre Dame, Saturday, 6PM ET, ACC Network
Two of a big batch of ACC teams hovering near the bubble, will square off in South Bend on Saturday evening. The Caviliers really need to perform well due to a current NET ranking of 96. Without going any further into UVA’s resume, that’s way too low for at-large worthy consideration. So if the Cavs are going to right the ship, they need to pack some punch to help their overall metrics too. Notre Dame comes in feeling slightly better than before, as the Irish are on a three-game win streak. Unfortunately a lot of these lower to mid-tier ACC wins are not moving the needle like they usually do. So the Irish are forced to keep on winning and drop one at home to Virginia would equal a giant step backwards. Pressure galore here. Virginia’s defense only ranks #102! It’s unbelievable to read that, but its true. So Notre Dame has a nice offensive edge on paper.

4. Boise State at Fresno State, Friday, 11PM ET, FS1
The Bulldogs get to host the red-hot Broncos on a late night national TV game. I saw these very Bulldogs knock off Utah State last week in my first visit to the Save Mart Center, and it was a great facility. The hope locally is for a real solid Friday night crowd. Boise State has been suffocating everyone lately, highlighted by the 42-37 rockfight win at San Diego State last weekend. An undertold story is what Freshman Tyson Degenhart has been able to bring to this Broncos club, seems like he takes the MWC Frosh of the Week Award each Monday. Broncos boast the 8th best adjusted defense in the land, and Fresno State loves to play physical. Should see a really intense battle here. Watch out for Orlando Robinson’s health. He hasn’t had to miss a game yet, but only logged 15 minutes in a tight win at New Mexico earlier in the week. Something to monitor closely.

Anthony Holland (Center) does it all for this Fresno State team. Watch for him to make key plays down the stretch.

3. LSU at TCU, Saturday, Noon ET, ESPN2
This section is all about the bubble. Can’t think of a more extreme bubble team today than TCU. And look what just landed in the Horned Frogs lap? The Big12/SEC Challenge against a great opponent! This is not only a great opportunity to land a Q1 win for the Frogs but also a chance to rescue their horrid non-conference strength of schedule (currently #334). TCU already has their work cut out for them in a rugged Big 12. I’ve been impressed by their wins at Iowa State and vs. Oklahoma. However, the blowout home loss vs. Texas was a warning sign earlier this week. In this LSU matchup, the Frogs will go up against the top-ranked adjusted defense. The Tigers could make life real difficult in the backcourt where they typically feast on opposing guards and cause poor decisions when it comes to shot-taking.

2. Michigan at Michigan State, Saturday, 12:30PM ET, CBS
The Michigan Wolverines have had a sideways season to say the least. Big expectations were in place for a team returning Hunter Dickinson, Eli Brooks, and a solid core plus the additions of DeVante Jones and Caleb Houstan. Things haven’t exactly gone according to plan in Ann Arbor. However, a big recent road win at Indiana and the subsequent win over Northwestern has restored a bit of cautious optimism. Let’s have a look at the current Resume:

You can see the Wolverines have struggled against the top two quadrants holistically. And just a .500 record (7-7) against the top three quadrants. Also, the Resume metrics (KPI & SOR) are in agreement that Michigan is below the at-large bar ranked 56th and 69th respectively. The good news? When you play in the mighty Big 10 things can change in a hurry. Michigan is a couple of huge wins away from being in the field. It can all begin in East Lansing this weekend.

1. West Virginia at Arkansas, Saturday, 2PM ET, ESPN 2
Does not get much more bubbly than this in the current moment. These two took completely different routes to get near the bubble. West Virginia has been “safe” for quite a while after a solid non-conference slate. Life in the Big 12 has hit them in the face though during a current four-game skid. Mountaineers were also home on Wednesday when they took a tough loss to Oklahoma and now have to travel to Fayetteville…where they will face a hot Arkansas team. The Razorbacks were unimpressive earlier in the campaign when they stumbled to an 0-3 SEC start. Since then, the Hogs are starting to get the Muss Buss rolling again and are on a five-game win streak highlighted by a marquee win at LSU. The road LSU win is doing wonders for the current resume, and this non-conference showcase game should really improve their other main concern: a 272nd ranked Non-Conference Strength of Schedule. Mountaineers certainly have their work cut out for them at Bud Walton Arena, will need to force turnovers early and get the Hogs out of rhythm early to have a good chance.

CONFERENCE LEADER GAMES

5. Winthrop at Longwood, Saturday, 3PM ET, ESPN+
This one has been circled on Longwood’s calendar for a long time. The vaunted Winthrop Eagles come pay a visit to Farmville. Longwood’s season came to an end last year in the Big South Semifinals at the hands of Winthrop, a team who beat them three teams a year ago. Furthermore, Winthrop has won at Longwood’s Willett Hall six consecutive times and beat the Lancers 15 out of the past 16 times. To say this means a ton to Longwood, would be a gross understatement. One concern for the Lancers is this is their sixth game in 14 days, will fatigue be a factor? Leslie Nkereuwem came off the bench to pour in 24 points in the win over North Carolina A&T earlier this week, so perhaps Longwood has more heroes lined up and ready to surprise. Winthrop is coming off an OT thrilling win over USC Upstate. Winthrop was mostly left for dead, until a game-tying shot at the buzzer by Patrick Good got them to Overtime. That demoralized the opposing Spartans. Longwood comes in unbeaten in league and Winthrop has just the lone loss at High Point last week. This shapes up to be must watch Big South action.

4. Sam Houston at Seattle U., Saturday, 4PM ET, ESPN+
Okay, something has to give between these two:

This is an unlikely battle for the top of the WAC standings and I dare you to find two hotter teams than this. Seattle U. has an incredible story under Interim Head Coach Chris Victor and boasts two of the best players in the WAC in Damion Trammell and Cam Tyson. The Redhawks managed to sweep their Texas road trip (ACU + Tarleton) last week by protecting the ball well and knocking down foul shots at a high rate. They did more of the same earlier this week in a showcase win over Stephen F. Austin in the NHL’s Climate Pledge Arena. In this one, they will not have that luxury, as they are back to the much smaller Showare Center in Kent, WA. Could be good news for shooters however, as that venue has great sight lines. Sam Houston brings a high-major player in Savion Flagg (mentioned in Tweet above) and is on a six-game win streak that includes victories of the league’s best (NMSU + GCU). The entire Bearkats roster is doing a tenacious job at crashing the offensive glass. This matchup promises to be an interesting clash and the winner will land in Monday’s Bracket.

3. Jacksonville State at Liberty, Saturday 7PM ET, ESPN+
Yet another battle of conference unbeatens! Jacksonville State’s first year in the ASUN and under legendary coach Ray Harper is set to step foot on the campus of Liberty, where the ASUN Title has traditionally ran through. Will not be an easy task for the Gamecocks to slow down Darius McGhee and the Flames, but JSU is playing their best basketball of the season. JSU can snipe from deep and gets 40.3% of their production from beyond the arc. We all know that Liberty can stroke as well, they get 39.7% production from behind the three-point line themselves. The Gamecocks have had the more vulnerable defense throughout the season, however Harper teams play a variety of zones that tend to get stronger over time. We’ll see if Jacksonville State can go into Lynchburg and shock the world, will be a fun battle of bombs.

2. North Texas at Louisiana Tech, Saturday, 4PM ET, Stadium
Grant McCasland’s Mean Green are a perfect 4-0 in true road games this season. Pretty remarkable when you consider two of those wins were at really difficult venues in Wichita State and Western Kentucky. The Mean Green go for five on Saturday at LA Tech. These two teams are part of a current trio tied at 7-1 and boldly in charge of Conference USA. Louisiana Tech is one week removed from another home showdown vs. UAB, where the Bulldogs fell short. This UNT challenge will be much different, as the Mean Green take their time on each possession and play stellar defense compared to UAB’s blazing speed and quicker shots. Bulldogs may have revenge on their minds here as well. LA Tech was eliminated in the CUSA Tournament last season and Kenneth Lofton was held to just 10 points. Should be an excellent battle, and both teams will be rooting for UAB to lose when its over.

1. Loyola-Chicago at Drake, Sunday, 2PM ET, ESPN2
If you were around for any of the 2020-21 Missouri Valley season, you’ll know that it doesn’t get much better than this. Loyola-Chicago and Drake had their wars last year, that ultimately tilted to the Ramblers when push came to shove in the Arch Madness Championship Game. However, Drake’s split with LUC during the regular season proved to be huge as Drake was then selected as an at-large team into the First Four of the NCAA Tournament. This season hasn’t been as rose-colored for Drake. They’ve had several games come down to the wire. Winning three of their four OT games and avoiding near-disaster with a one-point win at Evansville. At this point their may not be enough chances left for Drake to get an at-large, but a win on Sunday over recent rival Loyola would put the Bulldogs in a first place tie at 7-2. The Ramblers have had a real strange stretch of league play where they struggled mightily in four recent games vs. Bradley, Valpo, Missouri State, and SIU. Amazingly the Ramblers dug themselves out of a hole in three of these four games. Still, its not the dominant Loyola team we saw in many games last season that elevated all the way into Top 10 KenPom status. Should be an excellent, competitive battle in Des Moines and on ESPN 2 which is great for the league.

Enjoy the action this weekend everyone!
~Rocco Miller

Bracket Watch: January 14th - 16th

It’s time to prepare you for the Weekend! A very busy weekend of important College Hoops action is right in front of us. With 175 games happening between now and Sunday, refer to this guide as to which games mean the most in this week’s Bracket Watch.

Each week, the games previewed for this column are most clearly divided into three critical 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.

Our top five favorite games in each grouping were selected for the coming weekend.

Oscar Tschiebwe has been a rebounding maching in Lexington. They host the mighty Tennessee Vols on Saturday.

HEAVYWEIGHT GAMES

5. West Virginia at Kansas, SATURDAY, 2 PM EST, CBS
They say, “your season doesn’t really start until you win on the road.” For the West Virginia Mountaineers, that means it began when they were able to knock off UAB in Birmingham back on December 18th. Since then, WVU has had some cushy home wins over Youngstown State, Oklahoma State, and Kansas State (who did make them sweat a bit). The only road game? A 15-point unenthusiastic loss at Texas. Will Saturday be similar in Kansas? Could certainly be the case, but WVU does have the opportunity here to play on the national stage and pick up what would be considered an elite road win. For that alone, it’s worth tuning in. Also helping is the return of Taz Sherman, a real difference-maker for the Mountaineers. For Kansas, things have become very interesting lately. They fell at Texas Tech last weekend and barely rallied to beat Iowa State earlier this week. Can the Jayhawks right the ship? ICYMI - here are highlights and the final sequence between KU and Iowa State from Tuesday night:

4. Seton Hall at Marquette, SATURDAY, NOON EST, FS1
The Seton Hall Pirates simply couldn’t get out of a funk in a Thursday night loss at DePaul. Despite a wild rally late, the Pirates took a disappointing road loss. Now an early tip-off in Milwaukee against a hot Marquette team is here. No time to digest, just play hoops. The Pirates survived a classic one week ago in overtime vs. UConn. Kevin Willard’s group will need to tap into that level of effort in order to achieve a road win here. For Marquette, they’ve won three straight Big East games and all by double-digits. Things are really clicking currently and Tyler Kolek has been their motor on both sides of the ball. This shapes up to be an excellent matchup statistically as well. Marquette has been really efficient lately in taking good shots. Can they continue to do it against the #31-ranked eFG% defense that Seton Hall brings?

3. Texas at Iowa State, SATURDAY, 2 PM EST, ESPN+
Hilton Magic. We’ve all seen it, we’ve missed it, and the question is - is it back? Iowa State has been one of the most intriguing stories of the young College Basketball season. We now find ourselves entering the meat of conference play and ISU is faced with a rugged Big 12 path to maintain its relevance in the national spotlight. Texas provides an opportunity not only to continue this Cyclone quest toward relevance but also to re-establish that Hilton Magic. The signs are all there with wins at home over Iowa and Texas Tech already in hand. For the Horns, a work in progress is unfolding. Part of the year one Coach Chris Beard experience is teaching his team toughness in challenging road environments. Texas has fallen short in other chances at Gonzaga, at Seton Hall, and even last week at Oklahoma State. This game represents a big chance to take a step forward as a program. Also, Tre Mitchell only played two minutes in the win this week over Oklahoma, keep an eye on his health.

Creighton F Ryan Hawkins’ game has converted beautifully from D2 to D1

2. Creighton at Xavier, SATURDAY, NOON EST, FOX
A national spotlight game for two of the Big East programs not located on the East Coast. Xavier’s home court has been a major weapon for the Muskateers all season long. Some of that was just watered down however by Villanova this week in a narrow loss. Creighton has an improving team that has already turned a lot of heads this season. The Jays feature a mix of young talent and old veterans (see Ryan Hawkins, a fifth-year, former D2 national champion who is getting an extra year to play and getting to do it on the big stage). Jays have had 10-days to ponder their shortcomings in a 34-point loss at Villanova and “get right” before heading to Cincinnati. No excuse for Creighton not to be emotionally invested in this one. A road win in this game would do wonders toward earning an at-large bid.

1. Tennessee at Kentucky, SATURDAY, 1 PM EST, ESPN
I am sure you have been aware of this one due to the ESPN hype machine. For once, we agree on this being a blockbuster matchup. Oscar Tschiebwe has been turning heads in Lexington with his astronomical rebounding numbers and sheer ability to move. Standing at 6’9 and built with little to no body fat, he is a specimen that is somewhat unfair for collegiate competition to try and contend with. His knowledge and film study combined with all of the athleticism, make him one of the great rebounders of this generation. Kentucky enters this game 11-0 at Rupp Arena, though the Wildcats have yet to face a top-tier talented team at home. That changes here, as Tennessee, with their crop of talent (both young and old) and skill, enter Rupp on Saturday. The Vols fell just short at Alabama (73-68) and lost at LSU, mostly down the stretch. What did they learn from those road experiences? I expect this game to establish a really fun flow to it, as neither team gets to the foul line frequently. Should be excellent high-lever viewing.

BUBBLE GAMES

Disclaimer: It’s still January. That means the Bubble has not formed whatsoever. It’s a daily moving target. Based on what we know today, these are the games that would have the biggest impact on the eventual bubble:

5. Oklahoma at TCU, SATURDAY, 4 PM EST, ESPN2
TCU remains one of the great mysteries of the Power 6 schools. One glance at the Horned Frogs record, tells you that they are 11-2. Pretty, pretty good. A deeper look under the hood will tell you that they have just two wins vs. Top 100 competition against Texas A&M and Kansas State. Two teams who aren’t exactly tournament locks. The Frogs were also blown out in November vs. Santa Clara in the SoCal Challenge. Home games against quality Big 12 teams will go a long way in determining how seriously the NCAA Selection committee should view them. For Oklahoma, they are in the midst of a Texas two-step road swing. The first leg wasn’t pretty in Austin the other night, so I’d expect a strong effort in this one from Porter Moser’s team. TCU loves creating second chances by crashing the offensive glass, OU has been pretty good at preventing this so far this year - could be a big factor to watch for.

4. Wake Forest at Virginia, SATURDAY, 4:30 PM EST, ESPN+
The Wake Forest dream of making a run to the NCAA’s maybe slipping on to thinner ice after the double-digit home loss vs. Duke on Wednesday. The Deacons now get their chance to add to their road resume at Virginia. This is a state that was already kind to the Deacs in their statement win at Virginia Tech by 19 in December. The ACC this season has so many Top 100 teams that just need help getting Q1 and Q2 wins. If a team like Wake or Virginia gets hot in these games, there is plenty of basketball to play their way in. Virginia has shown bright spots lately in their wins vs. Clemson, Syracuse, and Virginia Tech. A win vs. Wake won’t necessarily move the needle, but it will be supportive to the overall story UVA would like to tell: A team who can consistently win quality games in a power conference.

Peyton Willis and Jamison Battle have been fantastic finds in the transfer portal for Ben Johnson’s Gophers.

3. Iowa at Minnesota, SUNDAY, 2 PM EST, B1G Network
This is really about Minnesota last night. The Gophers have been a tremendous story. A team who was picked last in the B1G, only to come firing out to a 7-0 start and later to a 10-1 start. Now sitting at 10-3 and staring down a ton of difficult league games, it will be vital to demonstrate that the Gophers can stop the bleeding on their home court against a solid Iowa team. Iowa has the look of a tournament team and played very well on Thursday night in the second half to knock off Indiana. A road win here for Iowa would help continue their case as one of the upper echelon teams in the conference. The Hawkeyes are up to third in the nation in Adj. Offensive Efficiency, can the Gophers slow them down at all?

2. Alabama at Mississippi State, SATURDAY, 6 PM EST, SEC Network
The endless tour of big games for Alabama continues on. Due to Alabama’s ridiculous non-conference schedule which included the massive win over Gonzaga, and losses to tourney hopefuls Iona and Davidson - Alabama finds itself in this strange middle ground where everyone near the bubble should feel confident against them. Up next? The Mississippi State Bulldogs. A game they’ve got a find a way to win at home. MSU is right there near the proverbial bubble and is hopeful to have Tolu Smith available in this game. The Bulldogs do everything well offensively in the Four Factors, particularly offensive rebounding, where they are a top-15 squad. Resume-wise, they need help. The Bulldogs have yet to do a lot away from the Hump, and lost at home to Minnesota which may not age well. A win vs. the Tide will help them anchor off something more significant and give them confidence heading into the belly of SEC play.

1. BYU at San Francisco, SATURDAY, 11 PM EST, CBS Sports Network
The WCC has been a great story in 2021-22. We are finally getting into a stretch where the four top teams are beginning to match up. BYU got a rough taste of Gonzaga’s medicine on Thursday night. Cougars had one of the top adjusted defenses in the country and found themselves allowing 110 points in a rough 26-point beating. I think that alone makes this a potentially dangerous game for San Francisco. BYU doesn’t want to go home 0-for-the road trip. USF has looked dynamite since the Loyola-Chicago loss, beating both San Diego and LMU by wide margins. The Dons have already passed good home tests against Fresno State, Nevada, and Davidson (NBA Arena). This should be a great chess match between Mark Pope and Todd Golden, where this may be the first time that the Dons have actually had the size advantage.

CONFERENCE LEADER GAMES

5. BIG SOUTH: Gardner-Webb at Longwood, SATURDAY, 3 PM EST, ESPN+
Tim Craft’s GWU Bulldogs have been heating up a late. Winners of five consecutive games, and a 3-0 start to Big South play, suddenly has the Bulldogs as the highest-rated Big South team in KenPom. D’Maurian Williams and Lance Terry have helped carry the scoring load and improved quite a bit from last season. They will take the four-and-a-half-hour bus ride northeast to Longwood. A hungry bunch of Lancers awaits. Longwood won their Big South opener in a thrilling OT game at Radford earlier this week. This game serves as the Conference home opener. Longwood comes in 20th nationally in O Reb% rate, which will be an interesting dynamic in this one. The Big South has gone to two divisions this season, but the winner of this figures to be the league representative in our initial bracket - coming next week!

Mixed reports on Chattanooga star David Jean-Baptiste, leaves the Mocs stellar season hanging in the balance.

4. SOCON: Furman at Chattanooga, 3 PM EST, CBS Sports Network
As pictured above, the headline for this game has shifted to the spotlight of one man: David Jean-Baptiste (14.6 PPG, 91% FT, 42% 3PT). The Mocs unexpectedly did not have his services in their stunning loss at Western Carolina. Mixed reports suggested that he was ineligible. IF that is a permanent deal, the outlook for Chattanooga and the entire SoCon changes quite a bit. Chattanooga has had a stellar year and has the most talented team in the SoCon at full strength. Furman (4-1 SoCon), another very talented team, visits Chattanooga (3-1 SoCon) on Saturday in a very cool showcase game for the conference. It is not often they are featured on a CBS property. The current league standings will tell you how the winner has a firm grip on the league race.

3. WCC: Gonzaga at Santa Clara, SATURDAY, 4 PM EST, NBC Sports Bay Area
Not that we believe there will be much of a race in the WCC, Gonzaga owns this league annually and this year appears to be no different - it’s still early enough to dream of some kind of race. Santa Clara is sitting out there still as an unbeaten team in the league and the first quality WCC team to host the Zags. Santa Clara had a very impressive start to the year, prior to star play Josip Vrankic catching a long-term Mono sickness. Lately, the Broncos have started to elevate their play again during blowout wins over San Jose State and Pacific. Gonzaga on the other hand is playing an NBA caliber of offense in scoring 117 vs. Pepperdine and 110 vs. BYU. For Santa Clara to have any chance, they need to make it a half-court game and take great shots. At any point, it can get away from them. Let’s at least hope for a quality game.

2. OVC: Murray State at Belmont, SATURDAY, 5 PM EST ESPN+
The hype for this one started early this week for these two schools who are both on their way to the Missouri Valley next season. If you missed the MM Field of 68 show, I was a guest this week and we discussed here:

The bottom line is this: Belmont will look to get easy looks both inside and outside. The Bruins will be comfortable on their home court. What can Murray State do to keep up and/or disrupt the Belmont flow? When Murray State has the rock, they will look to tenaciously attack offensive rebounds. Does that plan work? or just lead to additional run-outs by Belmont? Should be a fascinating high-level game and we get another version of this in February!

1. ATLANTIC 10: VCU at St. Bonaventure, FRIDAY, 7:30 PM EST ESPN2
A real showdown landed in our collective laps today with suddenly healthy VCU headed to St. Bonaventure. The big recent A10 news has been the recovery and play of Ace Baldwin. VCU has won six in a row since his return, and seven in a row overall. The Rams can establish themselves as the team to beat in the A10 with a road win in Olean tonight. St. Bonaventure is a team picked by virtually everyone to repeat as A10 champions and brought back the entire starting five. The Bonnies were recently hit with Covid though and finally returned to the court in a game earlier this week that was a real struggle at La Salle. Now they get to come home in front of their beloved and crazy fans. This just sets up as an incredible A10 matchup, going to enjoy it. The winner will join Davidson as the team to beat early on in conference play.

Enjoy the action this weekend everyone!
~Rocco Miller

Teams Of The Week: December 20th - 26th

In what was supposed to be a couple of action-packed nights (Tuesday and Wednesday), followed by a long break of no Basketball sans the Diamond Head Classic - College Basketball was hit brutally by a large number of program shutdowns due to Covid-19 protocols and ensuing game cancellations. The net was a very watered-down week in overall games played. The trend has unfortunately rolled into the coming weeks ahead and the sport is somewhat in limbo until either the virus spread slows down and/or the protocol limitations are relaxed. UPDATE - the CDC did announce that the requirements for quarantine will be reduced from 10 days to five days and we should soon see College Basketball conferences nationwide adopt these changes. The Diamond Head Classic did have two successful days of play, only to see the third and Championship day have issues. The Title game and 7th place game had to be canceled.

I made an appearance on the Greg Peterson Show, “Coast to Coast Hoops” to discuss all of the scheduling complexities and shed light on some of the work that takes place behind the scenes to get new games arranged. Feel free to check that interview out here:

Believe it or not, games were actually played this past week! There were some excellent stories to share on top of that. That’s what this column is all about! The Davidson Wildcats changed their season fortune with one win on a Tuesday in Birmingham. The Wright State Raiders may have saved their season by getting a major road win at an ACC school. The South Carolina State Bulldogs have gone from D1 futility to an incredible turnaround. That and more will be covered today.

COLLEGE BASKETBALL TEAMS OF THE WEEK

Davidson

Wildcats took on a game in Alabama at the last-minute. Wildcats ended up beating the Crimson Tide in Birmingham, 79-78. Resume changing victory for the campaign. The quartet of Hyunjung Lee, Michael Jones, Luka Brajkovic, and Foster Loyer carried this club by each scoring in double-figures and logging 30+ minutes of gametime. Davidson hit 50% (12-for-24) from deep, a trademark of when the program wins big like this.

 

Wright State

Grant Basile (23 Pts/14 Rebs) and the Raiders charged into Raleigh and took a win from NC State, 84-70. Wright St. made 94% of FTAs and 59% of 2-pt. Attempts. in the win. The Raiders turned on the afterburners during the second half, outscoring NC State, 47-32. The win was much needed for a proud program who had early-season struggles.

 

Vanderbilt

Commodores had an important resume win over BYU prior to the Title game being canceled against Stanford. Scotty Pippen Jr. once again stellar in willing Vandy to the crucial BYU victory. Pippen, Jr. had a team-high 23 points and continued to come up big in clutch moments. Vandy also took care of a road win at Hawai’i in the Quarterfinals. A renewed energy has shot into this program heading into SEC play.

 

Samford

Samford aka Bucky Ball has been trending for almost a week now after Samford won at Ole Miss on Tuesday. The Bulldogs were once again paced by Ques Glover (21 points). This is one of the more fascinating programs who is led by an SEC-caliber transfer (Glover) and coached by a former high-profile AAU Coach (Bucky McMillan). The Bulldogs are an impressive 10-2 with their only losses coming to San Francisco and Belmont. A team to watch out for in the SoCon.

 

Tennessee

The Vols managed to edge Arizona in a heavyweight showdown. Significant resume win for now was largely thanks to John Fulkerson's (24 Pts/10 Rebs) performance. The Volunteers have demonstrated now that they are a legitimate SEC Title contender and a sure-fire NCAA Tournament team with high aspirations. Here are highlights:

 

STRONGLY CONSIDERED

SOUTH CAROLINA STATE

Bulldogs are having a stunning start to the season behind Antonio TJ Madlock in his Frosh season. Bulldogs won the two-day Citadel tournament. Madlock averaged 19 pts/9 rebs.

CLEMSON

Snapped 11-game losing streak vs. Virginia. Won in Charlottesville for first time in 12 seasons. Tigers only committed seven turnovers and outrebounded the Cavs (35-26)

BOISE STATE

Broncos stormed into Spokane and outlasted Washington State in a defensive struggle. Abu Kigab was key in this game, leading BSU with 19 points.

BRADLEY

Braves went down to El Paso and won the Don Haskins Invitational by beating Sam Houston and the host UTEP Miners. Terry Roberts poured in 49 total points and was MVP in each game.

STANFORD

Cardinal finished 2-0 in Hawai'i during the Diamond Head Classic prior to unfortunately being shutdown due to Covid Protocol. Spencer Jones played extremely will in both wins over Wyoming & Liberty.

 

HONORABLE MENTION

Hofstra The Pride stayed hot with an impressive road win at Monmouth. Jalen Ray did it all in this one (19 Pts/6 Rebs/5 Assts) and played the full 40 minutes.

Utah Valley UVU completely controlled the game at Washington. Wolverines have a 9-3 record and now a high major road win to go along with a BYU win on their resume.

Towson Nicolas Timberlake had a fantastic performance in a win at Navy. 24 Points, included 5-for-6 from distance. The Tigers are red-hot going into CAA play.

UConn Road win at Marquette. Tyrese Martin and RJ Cole combined to score 45 points and Adama Sanogo made his return. Great news for UConn.

East Tennessee State Bucs snapped a two-game skid by winning on the road at Georgia. ETSU got back on track just in time before SoCon play tips-off later this week.

Charleston Cougars topped Old Dominion, 82-80, punctuated by a game-winning floater in the lane from freshman Babacar Faye with 27 seconds remaining. It proved to be the game winner.

UNC Wilmington UNCW, behind Jaylen Sims was able to emerge victorious over a tough Campbell program. Sims has helped lead the Seahawks to three straight wins.

Portland Pilots picked up their third road win of the year and their first over a Top 200 opponent (UC Davis). Mike Meadows made four triples and dished out six dimes in the victory.

Troy Trojans picked up their best win of the season at Mercer on Wednesday. Khalyl Waters led Troy with 19 Pts/7 Rebs and a perfect 10-for-10 evening at the Foul Line.

~Rocco Miller

Teams Of The Week: December 6th - 12th

Big East fans! Wow! There’s a really good chance you are in a great mood this morning. Salud! It was an incredible week for the conference, and you’ll notice several of your programs are recognized here today. It was also a massive week for a bunch of darkhorse programs. This is clearly becoming Minnesota and Iowa State’s world, and we’re just living in it. Narratives have formed, but we like to dive deeper than the narratives around here. So let’s go under the hood in College Basketball to find some great stories out there.

With the season now over a month in, certain programs (Bowling Green as an example) have still not had their complete roster available to them. Other squads are still finding their way (see South Carolina) with appropriate tweaking and rotation adjustments. For the bulk of College Basketball, it is a week-to-week sport that is subject to unexpected surprises and results. It gives us a big reason to love this game irrationally. Let’s take a wide look across the entire sport to see who truly had a tremendous week.

COLLEGE BASKETBALL TEAMS OF THE WEEK (12/6-12)

DePaul

David Jones scored 23 of his career-high 33 points in the second half. DePaul fought past Louisville 62-55 on Friday night in a statement win. Blue Demons also pounded Duquesne earlier in the week. The Blue Demons win at Louisville is a rare away marquee win in any recent program history, here are the winning highlights:

Arizona

What else can be said at this point? The Cats now have a premier road win at Illinois, they punished previously unbeaten Wyoming, and have kept the 80+ points streak alive and well. Christian Koloko was particularly impressive defending the preseason All-American: Kofi Cockburn.

Texas Southern

Tigers absolutely stunned the Gators on Monday night. The 13th best offensive rebounding team in the country proved themselves (14 Offensive Rebounds) and an overall 46-23 rebounding edge in this major upset. KenPom gave the Tigers a 2% chance of winning prior to tip-off. All of this came over an SEC team with a loaded roster. Hats off to Johnny Jones and his program on an improbable win.

James Madison

Sell-out crowd witnessed a massive regional win over Virginia. JMU is not able to participate in the CAA tourney this year, so this likely made the season for the Dukes. It was the first win in program history over Virginia. The Dukes held UVA to near 15% three-point shooting, and got the win despite not have one player score in double-figures. JMU also beat Radford.

Notre Dame

The Irish outscored Kentucky in the paint (38-26) while limiting the Wildcats to just 61 possessions on offense. On the glass, Notre Dame held a plus-five advantage over Kentucky. Strategic win for MIke Brey and Notre Dame, as they look to turn things around this season.

 

STRONGLY CONSIDERED

NEW MEXICO STATE

Two road wins in a week. Revenge win at New Mexico on a circus shot by Nate Pryor (pictured here). The Aggies then took down LMU by 5 on Saturday. Aggies are 8-2 now and have won three consecutive true road games. Here is the clip of Pryor beating New Mexico at the horn:

IOWA STATE

CyHawk rivalry game turned out to be a laugher, as the Cyclones dominated Iowa, 73-53. Izaiah Brockington was unbelivable in the win (29 pts./10 rebs. on 11-for-14 shooting). Cyclones continue to make major statements each game.

ST. FRANCIS-BROOKLYN

Coach Bracia had plenty to be happy about this week. Terriers entered the week at 0-8 and faced two road games at Saint Peter's and Delaware St. The Terriers ended up playing extremely well and won both by double-digits. Larry Moreno had 18 points to lead the upset over Saint Peter’s. If Moreno’s name sounds familiar, it’s likely due to his incredible basketball trick shot videos he made during 2020. Here’s one:

WEST VIRGINIA

The Mountaineers solidified themselves with a key win vs. UConn at home. It was important for the resume. Also, WVU took care of Kent State in a tricky follow-up game rather handily.

BUTLER

Butler went on the road and took down Oklahoma in OT. It was a gutsy performance by Chuck Harris and Simas Lukosius. Bulldogs may have in fact revived their season.

 

HONORABLE MENTION

Baylor The Bears handled an elite Villanova team in Waco. It was a defensive clinic that produced the lowest scoring game under Jay Wright that Villanova has ever had.

Murray State Tevin Brown and Justice Hill each had 20+ points to lead the Racers to a big road win at Memphis. Ja Morant being in Memphis made this a little extra special.

Seton Hall Pirates picked up a signature home win over Texas. For an encore, they lit up their rivals - Rutgers, by 14. Great week for SHU.

Belmont Bruins went into Saint Louis and came away with a crucial away win. Grayson Murphy did it all, 14 pts/9 assts/8 rebs. in the win.

Texas Tech It wasn't pretty. However, it counts. The Red Raiders outlasted Tennessee in a win that figures to carry a lot of weight by March.

Creighton The Sanford Pentagon hosted a clash between BYU and the Jays. Jays were Runnin and gunnin’ all afternoon, and got a major win.

South Carolina The Gamecocks picked up a significant win over Florida State by being especially disruptive on the defensive end of the court.

Georgetown Took down rival Syracuse. That came after blowing out UMBC. Hoyas are getting stellar play from their blue-chip Frosh, Aminu Mohammed (23/13 vs. Cuse)

Stephen F. Austin Beat a tough Liberty team by double-digits in Fort Worth. SFA really got it done defensively, holding the Flames to 22% three-point shooting.

Michigan State Spartans picked up a road win at Minnesota. For the time being, that is a big one as nobody else has figured out the Gophers. Sparty also tamed Penn State over the weekend.

Mercer Neftali Alvarez got injured in the game at Coastal Carolina. Bears still persevered and won at CCU, then beat their local rival, Ga. Southern over the weekend.

Ohio State In the comfort of home, the Buckeyes blitzed a good Wisconsin team on Saturday. Also, tOSU fought off a scrappy Towson squad earlier in the week.

SIU Edwardsville Overcame the tornado tragedy by beating Kansas City on Sunday. Also blew out IPFW earlier in the week.

Alabama Won a wild one over Houston that came down to a somewhat controversial no goaltend call that couldn't be reviewed.

Eastern Michigan Stan Heath moved to 5-0 at home in his first year as Head Coach. The Eagles survived a 4 OT war vs. FIU. They also beat a solid Niagara team during the week.

Colorado State Rams stormed back to beat Mississippi State. A key 17-2 run late pushed the Rams over the top. CSU is in an excellent position to make the NCAA's.

St. Joseph's Two wins in the Big 5 this week, included a blowout over Temple. Hawks have some good bragging rights in hand and played efficient hoops too.

Maryland The Terps outlasted Florida to gain Danny Manning his first win as interim Head Coach. Buffalo Key road win at WKU, not an easy place to win. Bulls moved to 6-3 by week's end.

Tennessee State TSU entered this week 1-6 and searched for answers. They manhandled a bad IUPUI team on Friday. The follow-up win at Lipscomb on Sunday could be a real season-changer.

SMU SMU took care of red-hot Dayton in their only game this week. Kendric Davis once again led the Mustangs, with 19.

Bowling Green BGSU is returning closer and closer to full strength and now they have a quality win in hand after knocking off a hot Oakland Golden Grizzlies team.

UCLA Mick Cronin’s Bruins dealt with ridiculous travel circumstances, and still won at Marquette by double-digits. All this with Cody Riley out still.

Stony Brook Took care of local rival Hofstra, 79-62. Impressive win. Seawolves did not have a letdown over the weekend either, beating Bryant, 86-78.

Loyola-Chicago Stellar play continued for the Ramblers as they went into SEC country and took care of Vanderbilt, 69-58.

TCU Frogs played outstanding in a win over Utah, then edged Texas A&M in Houston. Great week for Jamie Dixon's club.

Texas A&M-Corpus Christi Islanders are off to a 9-1 start under Steve Lutz. It has been impressive to see them beat a lot of teams in their own weight class. Two more wins in the bank this week included a road win at Omaha.

Southern Utah Thunderbirds cooled off a hot Utah Valley team, holding them down in a 60-56 win. T-Birds have won six straight.

Xavier Third straight victory in the Crosstown Shootout under Travis Steele. Throw in a 46-point win over Ball State, and it was a great week.

Winthrop Toughed out a home win over Furman, 85-80. Five Eagles finished in double-figures.

Weekend Hoops Watch: December 10 - 12

Welcome back to Weekend Hoops Watch! One of our favorite columns is back for this busy weekend of important College Hoops action. Although we would regularly not kick-start this column until January, the eagerness to prepare for these games directly in front of us was simply too strong to not write about them.

By January, the games previewed for the column are most clearly divided into 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.

Our top five favorite games in each grouping were selected for the coming weekend. For December only, I’ll focus on five under-the-radar games to highlight instead of conference games due to many teams still being in the thick of non-conference play.

Jeremy Sochan and the Baylor Bears host a blockbuster vs. Villanova this weekend.

HEAVYWEIGHT GAMES

5. Wisconsin at Ohio State Saturday NOON EST B1G Network
Badgers are a heavyweight? It sounds shocking based on preseason expectations right? The answer is yes for today, the Badgers are playing like heavyweights. They’ve played their way into this conversation. Johnny Davis has completely elevated his game after getting to spend the summer on the Team USA U19 FIBA team. Davis continues to hit big shot after big shot and demonstrates next-level athletic ability. The Badgers are coming off an emotionally charged 25-point comeback win at home vs. Indiana. Now the league demands them to travel to Columbus to take on an Ohio State team who defeated Duke at home. For the Buckeyes, EJ Liddell has once again asserted himself as an AA candidate himself and they are getting great production from Sophomore, Zed Key. If Wisconsin brings the right energy, this should be an excellent matchup. Ohio State takes really efficient shots, ranked 11th today in eFG%. Wisconsin is protecting the basketball at an elite clip, 8th in the country in TO% (13.0).

4. UCLA at Marquette Saturday 8:30 PM EST FS2
The major news for the Bruins is that Cody Riley made it back to practice this week. It appears that Riley will give it a go in this one. UCLA did not have much trouble with UNLV or Colorado since their tough night vs. Gonzaga, so this game should tell us a bit more on where they are at. For Marquette, Shaka’s first year is going about as well as hoped to date. The Golden Eagles are coming off a difficult away win at Kansas State and already beat Illinois and West Virginia this season. The Fiserv Forum will be rocking for this one. Marquette has been really good at getting to the foul line, will that continue? And can Marquette limit the second chances for UCLA on the offensive glass? Those will be key to an upset.

Update: UCLA at Marquette will start later today due to travel issues for the Bruins on Friday.

3. Arizona at Illinois Saturday 5 PM EST FOX
Well well well, FOX has themselves quite a double-header on Saturday. Nobody is hotter and scoring at a frenetic pace than Arizona. Tommy Lloyd’s team hasn’t scored less than 80 points in any game. The Cats are already #1 in NET rankings, the computer loves the blowout wins. The test for Arizona now comes in their second true road game of the year, that also includes two time zones of travel (always a big deal in College Basketball). Illinois has started to get back on track, primarily thanks to the red-hot Alphonso Plummer. Plummer knows some of these Arizona players well, as he is a transfer from Utah. Illinois will do their best to take their time on offense to limit possessions in this one. A massive key is Illinois ball protection, they currently have a high rate of turnovers and could be exposed if they let Arizona get running.

2. Houston at Alabama Saturday 10 PM EST ESPN2
Back on November 23rd, Houston lost a frustrating game in Las Vegas to Wisconsin by two. Since that day, the Cougars have been on a demolition path. Destructing the next four opponents by 29, 41, 66, and 32 point margins. That list included the Oregon win. Clearly, Coach Sampson has his team focused on all possessions regardless of score. UH will need that level of focus in order to pull off what would be a major road win in Tuscaloosa. The Tide are riding high after their big win in Seattle over Gonzaga. So many weapons on this Alabama team. However, this Houston matchup will likely not have a high pace and could play much more similarly to Bama’s game vs. Iona which ended in a low-scoring defeat.

1. Villanova at Baylor Sunday 3PM EST ABC
How did we get so lucky to have this many great matchups in a two-day span? This one is ELITE. Both Villanova and Baylor have national championship caliber rosters and coaches. Even further proof is in the pudding for Nova, despite the two gut-wrenching losses to Purdue and UCLA. The Cats have proven that on a possession-by-possession basis, they are an Elite team that can effectively score and defend. Baylor has shown really no flaws in their undefeated quest to date. They won the most difficult MTE at Atlantis which included a convincing win over Michigan State in the Final. Jeremy Sochan, LJ Cryer, and Kendall Brown have been even better than advertised. James Akinjo was a natural fit after his stellar season at Arizona last season. This matchup should give us great team basketball on all possessions and a thrilling game. The travel for Villanova might be a factor, but remember this: Villanova won at Texas on December 6th last season and played great. Cats will be ready.

Colorado State is ready to take on their first of two SEC opponents. Vital games for the Rams resume.

GAMES THAT MAY HELP SHAPE THE BUBBLE

5. Texas A&M vs. TCU in Houston, TX Saturday 6:30 PM SEC Network
In a matchup of in-state mystery teams, both have tournament aspirations that are alive. This game serves as a nice resume win for the winner and some bragging rights. You cannot talk about the Aggies and Frogs without addressing what happened in the transfer portal this past summer. Emmanuel Miller and Cashius McNeilly both transferred from Texas A&M to TCU. McNeilly would later go back into the portal. But Miller has become a primary piece of Jamie Dixon’s lineup. And now Miller will face his former team in the Rockets’ Toyota Center. He will be highly motivated. The Frogs are coming off their best performance of the season over Utah, 76-62. As for the Aggies, they did pick up a win over Notre Dame on the final day of Maui in Vegas. Overall, they are 7-1 with the lone loss being to Wisconsin. Frogs also just have the one loss, so we have a lot to figure out on both sides. Should be an intense battle with two fiery head coaches (Buzz & Dixon).

4. Minnesota at Michigan Saturday 6:30 PM EST FS1
Added this game because the Gophers are trying to make a season out of this. Well, a win in Ann Arbor would garner serious attention. Gophers were able to open some eyes last weekend with an impressive win at Mississippi State (teaser, more on them soon). A home loss vs. Michigan State earlier in the week is their first setback of the Ben Johnson regime. How do they respond? Meanwhile, Michigan is on the path to “getting right” after manhandling San Diego State and Nebraska in consecutive games. So, the question is what can Minnesota do to slow down the Wolverines? Two things pop out on paper, the Gophers have been excellent in keeping teams off the foul line defensively. Also, Minnesota is fourth in the country at protecting the ball. If both of those trends continue - this will be a great battle.

3. BYU vs. Creighton in Sioux Falls, SD NOON EST FS1
The first thing that jumps out here is the early tip-off time of 11 AM Central. Creighton has limited travel and plays in the same time zone, so it’s a mini-edge to the Jays from that standpoint. Creighton has had mixed results with this super young and super talented roster early in the 21-22 campaign. All told, they are sitting at 7-2 with losses to Iowa State and Colorado State - not exactly bad at all. An opportunity here vs. a banged-up BYU club and what should be a packed Pentagon could springboard the season for the Jays. As for the Cougars, they are coming off an emotionally charged in-state win over Utah State:

Mark Pope needed to regroup his team after that to prepare for this unique game in the Pentagon. Gideon George is back in the rotation at BYU and that helps a lot, but missing Baxter will sting for a bit until the Cougars are fully adjusted. Creighton’s defense has really done well keeping opponents off the free-throw line, but can they keep BYU off the offensive glass?

2. Crosstown Shootout: Cincinnati at Xavier 8:30 PM FS1
One of the best rivalries in the sport, hands down. This game would have made one of my lists in any given season - just an incredible intensity and passion goes into this game annually. We do get the added bonus of Cincinnati being an early-looking bubble team and Xavier (who is finally healthy) playing like an NCAA team. The key will be can Cincinnati neutralize the weaponry of Xavier, and can they do it in the hostile Cintas Center? Furthermore, can the Bearcats improve on their shot selection? They’ve currently struggled in this area, ranking just 235th in eFG%.

1. Colorado State vs. Mississippi State in Fort Worth, TX Saturday 2 PM EST ESPNU
The unbeaten Rams looked unstoppable in a home win over Saint Mary’s and further legitimized themselves as not only a tournament contender but a team who could actually wear white in the first big dance game. CSU is about to embark on a couple of tests vs. SEC foes. That begins on Saturday on a neutral court vs. Ben Howland’s Mississippi State club. Interestingly, it is Mississippi State who may need the win more in this immediate moment. The Bulldogs dropped a home tilt to Minnesota and were beat in the Bahamas by Louisville. A win vs. CSU gets them right on track. For the Rams, they only get a couple of more opportunities outside of the Mountain West to add a resume win. The Bulldogs will have a real challenge trying to slow down the Rams effective and efficient offense, it really hums. Conversely, the Rams will be tasked with trying to limit second chances when the Bulldogs attack the offensive glass (13th in the nation in OReb’s).

Will the Anteaters build on their wins over Santa Clara and Boise State, when they visit Fresno this weekend?

CRUCIAL UNDER THE RADAR GAMES

5. Cal Baptist at UC Riverside Saturday 7 PM EST ESPN+
The Battle of Riverside seems to get more important by the year. Locally this is a big one ever since CBU entered the D1 ranks four years ago. Last season unfortunately this newish local rivalry was postponed. In 2019-20, CBU defended the home court and beat UCR by 12. Since that time, the Highlanders have improved considerably and are one of the top programs in the Big West under Mike Magpayo. The Lancers have continued to progress under the guidance of Rick Croy. The Lancers are off to an 8-1 start. All eight of those wins were at the friendly confines of CBU Events Center. Now CBU is going cross town to UC Riverside’s SCR Arena where it should be a fun atmosphere. The Highlanders really pride themselves on defense but have been sloths on offense. Perhaps the CBU defense can help a bit, Lancers are one of the worst D1 teams at forcing turnovers. Such a contrasting style of ways these teams succeed.

4. Morehead State at East Tennessee State Saturday 4 PM EST ESPN+
Two of the stronger teams in the OVC and SoCon are set to do battle this Saturday in Johnson City. ETSU got a lot of attention after winning the Naples Invitational Tournament last month. Desmond Oliver has only been on the job for ETSU for a handful of months, yet was still able to keep both of the Brewers (Ty and Ledarrius) in the fold. His team is now sitting at 6-3 and performing like a Top 25 mid-major team. Morehead State started the season on a rough note, taking blowout losses to Auburn and UAB. The defending OVC Tourney champs have responded well lately, however, by winning their last four in a row and the Arkansas State MTE. The Eagles still have star player Johni Broome playing great basketball and appear to be ready for another run in the OVC.

3. Yale vs. Iona in Brooklyn, NY Sunday 8 PM EST FLOHoops
First, let’s hope this game happens. Just before press time, Rick Pitino had this to say, via Twitter:

Assuming the game is still on, Iona will be scrapping a bunch of under-the-weather Gaels together to get a victory. At this point, if you are Iona, you just need to keep winning. The Gaels of course, already have an elite win in hand over Alabama on the resume. As for Yale, this is an exciting opportunity to play at Barclay’s Center and get a big win as they approach Ivy League play. Yale protects the ball at a superb rate and that should keep them in it throughout the game. On the flipside, Iona gets to the charity stripe early and often. There doesn’t appear to be a sign of Yale preventing that in this one.

2. Liberty vs. Stephen F. Austin 7 PM EST FloHoops
This one has been circled since the late spring when the Hall Of Fame announced their Dallas/FW event details. Both the Flames and Lumberjacks have done damage in March over the past decade and created memories for their burgeoning fan bases. So this game is quite fun. The Flames have started to right the ship after a stunning loss to Manhattan last month, by blowing out Missouri in a home feature game. For SFA, they too are shaking off a rare home loss to South Dakota State a month ago. With the jury out on both schools, this is an important game for each side. Look for the Lumberjacks to really crank up the defensive pressure against Liberty in front of their semi-home crowd. SFA also should have their way on the offensive glass. What keeps the Flames in it here, is their top-notch eFG% (54.0).

1. UC Irvine at Fresno State 7 PM EST MOUNTAIN WEST NETWORK
The West Coast has been fortunate in the early going. Several programs appear to be in the mix and improved in general. On top of that, teams from the Mountain West, WCC, and Big West are scheduling each other early and often. Here we have yet another intriguing matchup as Fresno State (who had San Francisco on the ropes momentarily this week) hosting UC Irvine. To add more to the scene, the City of Fresno has experienced rare freezing weather this week. So let us hope this game is played with no interruptions and the Anteaters can travel safely to and from the Save Mart Center.

In this matchup, look for a tremendous interior matchup between Orlando Robinson and Collin Welp. Two elite players in the west and similar heights. Robinson of course, will be more mobile and out on the perimeter at times. But seeing them go for rebounds and in the screen game will be fascinating. The Bulldogs are a Top 100 program defensively in all of the four factors (ORebs allowed, forcing turnovers, defending shots, and keeping opponents off the foul line). That’s really impressive. UC Irvine is elite, however, when it comes to defending jump shots and limiting second-chance points. Eaters are one of the best in the nation in those areas, and in general UC Irvine is the tallest team in the Big West by a mile. It’s a matchup issue for most, if not all. Jemarl Baker of Fresno State will be in his second game back, curious to see his usage rates in this one.

Enjoy the action this weekend everyone!
~Rocco Miller

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

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:

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:

  • 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

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

Discussion with Andy Katz - Bracketology thoughts, process & future
Rocco Miller


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)

Catching up with Coach Mike Hopkins
Rocco Miller

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.

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?

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

StronglyConsidered012521.jpg

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.

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:

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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.

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:

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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

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