Week of 1/8/24
It was the first big Saturday of the College Basketball season last week, with a couple of close finishes and Top 25 games. As conference play was in its early stages this past week, some times slipped up, and some barely got by.
Starting at the top, there’s a new number 1 team in town. That’s Purdue. After taking care of Maryland on Tuesday, they had a tight turnaround before taking on Illinois, who were ranked 10th. Illinois was missing their leading scorer, Terrance Shannon Jr., and the game was at home for Purdue, so it should have been an easy win for the Boilermakers. Purdue started out hot, as they were up 15 at half. Illinois started to close the gap near the end, but Purdue prevailed, winning by 5, 83-78. Trey Kaufman-Renn had a breakout game, scoring 23 points off 8-12 shooting. Once again, Zach Edey had a quiet game, this time scoring 10 points, but pulling in 15 rebounds. Purdue’s win over a top 10 team is not the only reason why Purdue is now ranked number one. Kansas struggled against TCU on Saturday, eventually winning by 2, 83-81. Hunter Dickinson’s 30 points, 11 rebounds game did help Kansas, but he took 20 shots. Kevin McCullar Jr. took 16, but no one else took more than 9. Starter Elmarko Jackson didn’t score any points in his 24 minutes. This is a game that Kansas could’ve easily lost, but Dickinson saved the day. Edey’s game on Friday and Dickinson’s on Saturday might not change much in the National Player of the year race, but it shows how Purdue has other threats, while Dickinson is pretty much all they have, as McCullar could barely make a shot, while K.J. Adams is a good partner for Dickinson on defense, but not offense. Dickinson is starting to look like the favorite for the award in my eyes, but since Edey won it last year, we know he can do it again. As for the third place Houston, they are now the only undefeated team left in College Basketball. They’ve dominated their opponents off the backs off their defense, as they allow just under 50 points per game, the best in the country. That has led to a point differential of 27 points, also the best in CBB. They crushed West Virginia on Saturday, 89-55. As for UConn, they destroyed Seton Hall and came back against Butler this week, but solid basketball was still played. Then comes Tennessee, who was one spot behind North Carolina entering the week, but after a huge win against undefeated Ole Miss, they jump the Tar Heels. Tennessee won big 90-64. Rocky Top had 47 rebounds, while Ole Miss had just 24. If Tennessee continues to play like that through SEC play, they could be one of the 1 seeds in March Madness. Tennessee also beat Norfolk State earlier last week.
Following Tennessee, the aforementioned North Carolina Tar Heels to cap off the second half of the top 10. They’ve been on a 4-game winning streak since losing to Kentucky, and this streak contains wins over Oklahoma and now Clemson, as they took down the Tigers on Saturday, 65-55. Against Clemson, UNC relied on their defense for the win. They had 44 total rebounds, 30 of them defensive. Armando Bacot and RJ Davis tied for the most points on UNC, as they both had 14. Cormac Ryan had 10 points, and no one else had more than 10 points for UNC. They also beat Pitt this week. Following North Carolina is Arizona and Kentucky. Starting with Arizona, after losing 2 of their last 3, they crushed Colorado by nearly 50, and took care of business on Saturday against Utah, winning 92-73. If Zona can get back on track, they can certainly still be a top seed in the tournament. As for Kentucky, they struggled against Florida, but did not lose, winning 87-85. They got a big boost of the bench from Reed Sheppard, although most of his points came from the line, as he shot 9 of 11 from the free throw line. He’s one of the best freshmen in college basketball, and Kentucky is one of the best teams. Following the Wildcats are Oklahoma and Duke. Oklahoma played Iowa State as their only game last week, and won 71-63. It was a close game throughout, but Oklahoma started to pull ahead late and never looked back. They do take on Kansas this week on the 13th, and that’s a road game. As for Duke, they’re playing some of the best ball in the country. They’ve won 6 straight, taking down Syracuse and Notre Dame this week. Mark Mitchell scored a career-high, which is now 23 points, in the Notre Dame game. They have Pitt up next before a rematch with Georgia tech, their most recent loss.
The next 5 teams in the top 25 are Illinois, Marquette, Gonzaga, Baylor, and Memphis. I’ll start with Illinois and Marquette, who both lost. Illinois suffered a loss to Purdue, so it only knocks them a spot. Like I stated earlier, Illinois was getting blown out in the first half before things started to narrow. However, Illinois was down by 21 at one point and never led. Purdue is the best team in basketball, so its no surprise that without their leading scorer, Illinois is going to struggle. The loss of Terrance Shannon Jr. might contribute to Illinois losing a few more games, especially with Michigan State and Northwestern coming up this month. One of Illinois’ previous losses came to the hands of Marquette, but Marquette has not been the strongest since, especially recently. They fell to Providence on the 19th, before 2 wins over Georgetown and Creighton. They lost again, now their fourth on the year, to Seton Hall on Saturday. Marquette was dominated on the boards, as they had 25 rebounds to Seton Hall’s 43. Marquette simply got out played, something that can’t happen with tough teams like Butler and Villanova coming up. Gonzaga is on the up & up after their loss to San Diego State, as they beat Pepperdine and San Diego. Because St. Mary’s isn’t that good this year, Gonzaga should have the WCC wrapped up, so it doesn’t really matter how close they play these teams, because they know they’re good, and so do we. As for Baylor, they had a close game to start Big 12 play against Oklahoma State. They came out with the win in overtime, 75-70. They shot just 13.3% from 3, with starter Jalen Bridges going 0-5 from downtown. Although Baylor got the win, they take on BYU tomorrow. BYU is coming off a loss, and I’ll get to that later, but Baylor needs to correct their mistakes as fast as possible, because otherwise they could be in danger of dropping another game. As for Memphis, they survived a close game against SMU, and they also beat Tulsa by 3. They played it dangerously close this week, but had the clutch genes, and that’s going to help them this season, especially down the line.
Just outside of the top 15 are BYU, Colorado State, Wisconsin, San Diego State, and Auburn. Starting with the duo of BYU and Colorado State, who have seemed to do everything the same this season, including losing on the same dat. Well, that happened again, as both teams dropped a game on Saturday. BYU lost to Cincinnati, 71-60, in their Big 12 debut. Although Trevin Knell had a good game, as he had 27 points, but no one else did. Only 1 other player had over 10 points, that being Dallin Hall, but he shot a horrendous 3-13 from the field, and 2-12 from 3. The reason why BYU lost is most likely because of their 3-point shooting, as it was really bad. They shot 28.3%, but it should’ve been worse, as they shot 46 total 3’s, making 13 of them. BYU is averaging 34.6 3-point shots a game, second in the nation. They’re making 13% of them, the best in the country. Their offensive method has worked this year, but they’re about to take on Baylor, the best team that they’ve took on so far. As for Colorado State, they went 1-1 this week, beating New Mexico, but losing to Utah State. In that Utah State game, they had 6 different bench players play, and half of them scored for a combined 9 points. Only 1 starter went over 30 minutes, so when the bench was on the court, CSU wasn’t getting any production on offense. Utah State, in contrast, had 13 bench points, and 3 players played. 1 player didn’t even score. In Wisconsin’s case, they beat both Iowa and Nebraska this week to advance to 3-0 in Big Ten, and are now the only team in Big Ten conference play that’s undefeated. They should continue to roll through the rest of their games before Purdue on February 4th. As for SDSU, they also destroyed their opponents this week, taking down Fresno State 74-47, and UNLV 72-61. They’ve now won 6 straight, and take on San Jose State and New Mexico. Its going to be a power struggle between SDSU and Colorado State for the Mountain West crown, but SDSU is really hot right now, and I could definitely see San Diego State winning the conference. Auburn has started off the New Year hot, beating Penn by 20 and destroying Arkansas on Saturday 83-51. Auburn had a total of 46 bench points against Arkansas, ad 37 from the starters. If Auburn can continue this balanced offense throughout SEC play, they could easily be a top 10 team at the end of the season.
To finish the top 25 are Clemson, Texas, Creighton, James Madison, and Ole Miss, all but 1 coming off a loss, are looking to turn things around. That one team that didn’t lose was Creighton. They upset Providence 69-60, and also beat Georgetown. They’ve had an up and down season so far, but hopefully they can stay on track from Right now. Now for the losers. Texas, Ole Miss, and James Madison lost on Saturday. Clemson also lost on Saturday, but they also lost earlier in the week to Miami. Their positioning last week kept them in the Top 25, but if they slip up again, they’ll fall out. JMU and Ole Miss’ losses gave both teams their first loss. For Ole Miss, they got destroyed by Tennessee, 90-64. James Madison fell to southern Miss 81-71, but their previous win over Louisiana last week keeps them in the Top 25. As for Texas, it’s the same case as James Madison. They lost to Texas Tech on Saturday 78-67, but beat UT Arlington on New Year’s Day. Because Texas had such a week non-conference schedule, they’re near the bottom of the list because those non-con wins weren’t that good.