Another quiet weekend included college football again making for light schedules, plus some underwhelming fields in eight-team tournaments. Here are some quick-hit notes from the third weekend of November and second of the hoops season:
The Puerto Rico Tip-Off tourney illustrated just how wildly teams’ performances and fortunes can change from one day to the next in tournament play. In the quarterfinals, Illinois State played a terrific game in edging South Carolina, while UTEP had Boise State all but beaten before faltering in the final minutes. One might’ve thought the Redbirds would’ve had an edge the next day, but Boise suddenly turned into an offensive machine, Chandler Hutchison was dominant and ISU looked horrendous, needing a late rally to lose 82-64. Just before that, the Gamecocks drubbed the UTEP team that should’ve been playing Illinois State. At least some clarity was found Sunday, as Illinois State again played very well in handling Tulsa, and South Carolina took care of Western Michigan for the second time this season.
- Boise State personified the unpredictability of performance in tournament basketball. In six halves of the Puerto Rico Tip-Off, about three of them went well, though it was enough for a runner-up finish. The Broncos led UTEP solidly early in the second half of their first game, then went silent after the Miners switched to a zone, buried some big shots and led comfortably late. Boise should’ve lost, but UTEP missed some free throws, had a couple inexcusable defensive breakdowns, and Chandler Hutchison saved the Broncos with a three-point play in the final seconds of a 58-56 win. The next day, Boise State hammered Illinois State in the semifinals, and on Sunday the Broncos looked poised for a good championship game with Iowa State-until Hutchison left the game early in the first half after hitting his head on the floor hard. He never returned, and the Broncos’ chances seemed to leave with him, as they fell behind by 24 points before a furious rally to within four points late, eventually losing to the Cyclones 75-64.
- Arizona State being 4-0 isn’t automatically notable-a Big Football conference team winning its first four at home is hardly earth-shattering. Beating San Diego State by 22 points last week, though, certainly is. So is topping 90 points in each of its first four games. So is scoring 99 on UC Irvine, annually one of the better defensive teams in the country and one that allowed 64.8 ppg last year and no more than 71 in its first four games this year. Bobby Hurley’s Sun Devils appear to have some firepower-Tra Holder and Shannon Evans are both averaging over 20 ppg, and Evans scored 50 in an exhibition win. Very curious to see this team against Kansas State and possibly Xavier later this week in the Continental Tire Invitational.
- Belmont lost two-time Ohio Valley Conference Player of the Year Evan Bradds, whose unique and efficient low-post game one figured would be impossible to replace. As it turns out, the Bruins still had another player who can execute a similar game to Bradds. Dylan Windler is averaging 16 ppg to start the season and shooting 63.6% from the floor, and he’s been outstanding on the glass, too, averaging 12 boards per contest. Windler also adds a three-point shooting element, though he is not shooting as many so far as a year ago when he made 39.8% from the half-moon line in better than three attempts per game. Windler stepping up, as well as Amanze Egekeze also averaging 19.8 points early on, are both reasons why the Bruins are 4-1. Great programs reload, and one has been sleeping under a rock if they don’t know that Rick Byrd has a great program at Belmont.
- Temple has received a lot of publicity as a team to watch coming into the season, and the Owls lived up to it in winning the Charleston Classic. Lavan (Shizz) Alston-yes, those of us who remember watching his father play will note his given name-averaged better than 18 points per game, Quinton Rose looks ready to blossom into an all-AAC player and one to watch nationally, and Obi Enechionyia also was excellent. Wins over Old Dominion, Auburn and Clemson may not be top-notch, but all three are good wins, and the Owls got it done against different styles-slower-paced, brawny ODU; go-go-go Auburn and ACC-athletic Clemson.
- Monmouth is still good enough to compete with top-notch programs like Seton Hall and Virginia, as it has shown for long stretches early on. The Hawks have to clean up the turnovers, though. They committed 21 against Seton Hall, with too many in particular in the first half when Monmouth was even with the Pirates for 15 minutes before eventually losing contact. Then, the Hawks committed 11 of their game total of 14 turnovers in the first half against Virginia, which coupled with settling for too many poor shots resulted in a similar scenario of UVA pulling away late in the first half. The mistakes especially have to be curbed now as coach King Rice said he’s “shutting down” Micah Seaborn, who has been playing hurt. Rice hasn’t indicated how long that will be, and even injured Seaborn has been good enough to lead the guards, Deion Hammond has provided a nice lift as a second scoring guard and the frontcourt by committee has been competitive. But Monmouth has to reduce its 18.8 turnovers per game, or it’s going to be an uneven season.
- Speaking of Virginia, we start finding out now what the Cavaliers have. The NIT Season Tip-Off has Vanderbilt and then Seton Hall or Rhode Island, and games loom against Wisconsin, West Virginia and high-powered Davidson. A 4-0 start including a gritty road win at VCU and a comfortable 73-53 victory over Monmouth are good signs that Tony Bennett has just reloaded again, but just two players are averaging double figures so far, and if Kyle Guy’s early 18-ppg gets limited, UVA will truly need scoring by committee.
- While eligibility questions have plagued some of the biggest-name programs, injuries have also been an early story of the season for a number of teams that came into the year with high expectations. Yale has lost Jordan Bruner for the season due to a meniscus tear, and Makai Mason will be out for at least another month after a stress fracture developed in the same foot that caused him to miss all of last season. Saint Joseph’s has lost Lamarr Kimble for the season. College of Charleston has missed frontcourt anchor Jarrell Brantley early, and Long Beach State has not had big man Temidayo Yussuf, both due to knee injuries. Bucknell also was without starter Avi Toomer in its narrow loss at Maryland.
- Saturday alone, Nevada set a school record for three-pointers made in a game. Belmont-a program that’s been launching prodigiously from long range for years-set a new mark for three-point attempts in a game. Purdue made 13 triples-in one half. It seems school three-point shooting records are being broken almost daily, and it’s becoming more and more apparent college basketball is coming very close to the same stage the modern Major League Baseball game is at, where play is dominated by home runs, strikeouts, walks, and just about nothing else. For hoops, the game is increasingly being reduced to 1) three-point tries or 2) players driving to the basket and throwing themselves at the rim as hard as possible. Some analytically minded think it’s grand. For us fans of the variety that college hoops has traditionally offered, it’s becoming nauseating. Home runs, three-pointers, acrobatic shots and strikeouts are all fun; a non-stop diet of them quickly gets old, and it’s getting there in this sport.
- We mentioned last week that the Missouri Valley Conference got off to a good start over the first weekend, and it’s generally continued since, Indiana State’s 0-3 performance in the Charleston Classic and league favorite Missouri State tripping up at home against North Dakota State notwithstanding. The dramatically underrated aspect of the MVC often is how strong the bottom of the league is. Of the league’s biggest name-brand wins early on, it should be noted two of them (Indiana State over Indiana, Drake vs. Wake Forest) were recorded by teams that tied for last in the league last year. Meanwhile, a Bradley team that played on Thursday in a play-in contest at Arch Madness lost by one to a touted Vermont team that nearly knocked off Kentucky. Even last year, it was Indiana State-not Wichita State, Northern Iowa or anyone else-that posted the league’s best non-conference win, knocking off Butler. The Valley may not have its bellwether big names anymore, but it still is much deeper in quality than most and more like an Atlantic 10 or Mountain West than it is a bottom half conference in Division I.
- The Northeast Conference quietly had a terrific weekend, winning nine of 12 games between Friday and Sunday. Given how much rosters in the NEC have been picked apart by poachers and transfers the last few years, the league’s collective success for three days-most but not all of it coming against similar competition-is great to see, for coaches but especially for the players who have stuck it out at their schools. Such as Austin Nehls and Mustafa Jones of Central Connecticut State, which won at East Carolina with junior Nehls scoring 24 and Jones-a rare fourth-year senior in the Northeast-adding 10 points and eight rebounds. It was a much-deserved win for Blue Devils team that had Head Coach Donyell Marshall placed on leave before the season, reportedly for a verbal dispute with an assistant coach at a practice in the preseason. The Blue Devils just missed in close losses at Hartford and Rutgers but finally knocked off ECU of the AAC for a win to be proud of.
- We only needed to see a few results this weekend to remind us just why we aren’t a fan of the use of margin of victory in college basketball ratings. If you saw the finals Saturday and Sunday, you saw Texas-Arlington won at BYU by 13, Iowa State beat Boise State by 11 and Old Dominion topped Dayton by eight. What you didn’t see is that UTA led the Cougars by 25 in the late going, Boise State was down just four with two minutes left and ODU was up 17 with two minutes left before the Flyers closed it up with some meaningless three-pointers in garbage time. The point again is, as much as other simpler power ratings are pilloried, margin of victory rankings also have their weaknesses too, because the final score doesn’t always reflect how a game played out for 38-39 minutes. Given one or the other for rankings, we will always prefer simplicity. You win or you lose, and a 30+ game sample size of such results-plus human beings interpreting what the scores mean themselves-should be more than enough information for a tournament selection committee to evaluate.
- Vermont defeated Bradley by one point in the quarterfinals and then nipped Northern Kentucky by two in the title game for the Island of the Bahamas Classic. The Catamounts also nearly won at Kentucky, and coming up they have: at Yale, at Richmond, at Bucknell, at Marquette, at Northeastern, Siena at home and at St. Bonaventure. A trip to Harvard right after the new year. Add in at least two-and maybe three-battles with Albany in the America East, and UVM is going to be one tested team come March.
- The inaugural Cayman Islands Classic coming up this week has the potential to be the most intriguing of all early season tourneys. Cincinnati and Iowa will be favorites-especially deserved in the case of the Bearcats-but Louisiana-Lafayette, Wyoming, UAB and Buffalo all have the potential to cause trouble. Cincy’s game with athletic Buffalo should be fun, and Iowa will open with Louisiana’s Ragin’ Cajuns and then could face Wyoming. There’s also South Dakota State with Mike Daum, who could break up anyone’s bracket.
