The Big 12 ran some misdirection on us early in the season, but as we hit the middle of January, it looks the conference is right back to where its been the past couple years.
It was looking like the Big 12 was going to be a relatively easy romp for Kansas this year, with Texas Tech perhaps the Jayhawks’ main/only real stumbling block. Yet five games into the conference schedule, six teams are separated by one loss at the top of the standings, and nine of the 10 are just two games apart.
Kansas isn’t going to have a cakewalk, and teams that looked to be slipping are suddenly resurgent. We saw the latter proven Wednesday night when Kansas State was a convincing 74-61 winner at Oklahoma, and two hours later Iowa State completed a 68-64 win at Texas Tech to give the Red Raiders their first Big 12 defeat.
K-State’s recent surge is a major story, considering just over a week ago its season looked to be circling around the drain. The Wildcats were down 21 at home early in the second half against West Virginia, an offense broken all season seemingly falling completely apart. Incredibly given its performance much of the year, Kansas State would score 17 straight points to get back into the game, took its first lead of the game with 2:30 left and got a go-ahead layup by Barry Brown with 29 seconds left for the winning basket in a 71-69 victory.
The Wildcats then found a way to win at Iowa State on Saturday despite another poor shooting performance, and on Wednesday they won again on the road. Brown had his third straight big game, scoring 25 points, and Kansas State shot 50%, including a stunning 10 of 22 from three-point range in a wire-to-wire commanding performance.
Kansas State had previously been what we saw as one of the more disappointing teams of the season. Not necessarily because we expected the Wildcats to be the top 10-15 team some had them as before the year, but because in almost every offensive area and with its top players, an experienced team that already was offensively challenged had shown substantial regression.
As Erik Haslam of the metrics site haslametrics.com noted yesterday, though, by his metrics K-State’s four best performances of the season had all come on the road even before Wednesday night. One thing we know is, while the offense has been hurting, the Wildcats’ defense was still terrific, and will and is going to give them a chance in any game, so perhaps it was just a matter of time before such an experienced team found its groove.
Iowa State’s win at Texas Tech also came after the Cyclones seemed to be leaking oil following two straight losses. The Cyclones got a lead and never gave it up in the second half, getting key baskets every time they needed them to hang on. ISU was just efficient enough, and though shooting 43.9% might seem middling, that’s nearly 10 percentage points higher than what Tech has been allowing all year.
The Red Raiders will rue this one after making just 6 of 15 from the free throw line. Texas Tech also gave up too many fast breaks in the second half and couldn’t slow down Mariol Shayok (20 points) or Michael Jacobson, who posted 14 points plus 10 boards, outplaying Tech’s big men.
Kansas State and Iowa State were victors away from home on an evening where traveling worked out on the whole as an advantage. On a night where 50 games were played across Division I, road teams won 27 of them.
Side Dishes:
- Of all the many seemingly mismatched pairings in the American Athletic Conference, few would peg games between Tulsa and Connecticut to be one of the very best series to watch, yet these two have provided consistent drama going on nearly five years now. Most of that has come on the court, where the squads had played four straight games decided by two points dating back to 2016, including a pair of games hitting overtime.
There wasn’t quite as much there Wednesday night in the Golden Hurricane’s 89-83 victory, where Jeriah Horne scored a career-high 27 off the bench in Tulsa’s biggest scoring outburst of the season. On the sidelines, though, was the rare occurrence of seeing both coaches ejected from a game, as Tulsa’s Frank Haith and UConn’s Dan Hurley both were tossed after some jawing back and forth resulted in technicals for both-and then second T’s for both as well after it appeared they were trying to come together to shake hands. (David Borges of the New Haven Register has a great recap of it here, including noting this came on Hurley’s birthday). The game ended with Kenton Paulino leading Tulsa and Kenya Hunter in charge for the Huskies. For the drama they continue to provide, it’s unfortunate these two teams don’t meet again this season. - Shamorie Ponds was back, and so was St. John’s with an 81-66 victory over Creighton. Ponds was shaking and baking his way to 22 points after sitting the Johnnies’ previous game, a loss to DePaul on Saturday. The Bluejays, meanwhile, have lost four straight.
- South Carolina just keeps winning in the SEC. The Gamecocks rallied late on the road to steal one at Vanderbilt for a 74-71 victory. The team that went 5-7 out of conference with home losses to Stony Brook and Wofford and a loss at lowly Wyoming has squeezed out four straight in the SEC, three coming by a single possession or in overtime.
- Houston took care of business again with a methodical 69-58 win at SMU, another solid win away from home. The Cougars haven’t played a ton on the road yet, but already have wins at BYU, Oklahoma State and now the Mustangs. Corey Davis Jr. scored 20 and Armoni Brooks added 19 with five three-pointers. It’s hard not to be impressed with this team’s toughness.
- Louisville won again, holding off Boston College 80-70. Jordan Nwora has been one of the breakout players of the season, and he scored a career-high 32 points and added 10 boards for the Cardinals.
- Speaking of 30-point double-doubles, Mike Daum put up another huge one for South Dakota State. The senior scored 34 and added 21 rebounds in the Jackrabbits’ hard-fought 78-74 win at North Dakota.
- Quietly, VCU is putting together a very nice bounce back season. The Rams edged Dayton 76-71 at the Siegel Center, with Marcus Evans hitting the go-ahead triple with 34 seconds left in a game that included a wild 22 ties and 12 lead changes. VCU has a nice collection of wins that in addition to the Flyers (who also are showing positive signs of improvement) including Temple, Hofstra, Texas and Wichita State, and even victories over the likes of Bowling Green and Gardner-Webb are better than many know.
- Signs of life from Wichita State, which toppled Central Florida 75-67 at home to give the Knights their first loss in the American. Markus McDuffie has to be great for the Shockers this year, and he was-23 points on 9 of 15 shooting, including 18 points in the second half. As a team, Wichita shot better than 50% plus 17-for-18 from the line.
- The surprise of the night: Illinois ran all over Minnesota 95-68. Brad Underwood teams can do this, getting ridiculously hot from the field, and the Fighting Illini shot 56.1%. More concerning for the Golden Gophers would be a normally poor rebounding team also outworking them by 10 on the glass.
- Lipscomb handled New Jersey Tech 70-53 on the road in the Atlantic Sun, dropping NJIT to 1-2 in league after its excellent out-of-conference showing. The offense runs through Rob Marberry for the Bisons in the post, and he scored 23 while making 11 of 12 shots.
- Hartford slipped by Maine 77-76 in the America East, another tough loss for the Black Bears, who despite a 3-16 record have been in almost every single game. This one was decided when John Carroll hit two free throws with :00.5 left for the tying and winning points for the Hawks, capping a rally from five points down in the final 20 seconds.
- Long Beach State won the season’s first installment of the Black & Blue Rivalry, surprising Big West favorite UC Irvine 80-70 on the road (where else on this night?). Deishaun Booker scored 28 for the 49ers, who put up 50 points in the second half on the Anteaters’ normally stingy defense.
- More news from the Big 12, where Oklahoma State has booted three players from its team, leaving head coach Mike Boynton with eight scholarship players and now holding walk-on tryouts. Maurice Calloo, Kentrevious Jones and Michael Weathers are no longer with the team, and the Tulsa World is reporting the dismissals are related to an investigation into vandalism. Weathers was one of the Cowboys’ top players off the bench, providing athleticism and offense off the bench with 9.2 points per game, while Calloo also played 10.8 minutes per game and Jones had appeared in eight games. Okie State is 8-9 overall and 2-3 in the Big 12 headed into a game at Iowa State Saturday.
- Finally, we posted our latest notebook on Hoopville yesterday, looking at Georgia State’s lack of at-large candidacy so far among other notes from the country.
Tonight’s Menu:
- The game of the night is Michigan State at Nebraska (8 p.m. Eastern, FS1). The experienced Cornhuskers have picked up a couple nice road wins and now get the Spartans at home, where they have won 21 straight games. MSU has won 18 consecutive games in the Big Ten, though. This should be fun.
- College of Charleston and Northeastern were expected to throw haymakers all season at the top of the CAA, but both already have two losses each in league play and are tied for third heading into tonight. Regardless, this is the first of at least two highly anticipated meetings this year, and maybe three, if they also face off in the CAA tourney final as they did a year ago.
- Also tied with those two for third in the CAA is UNC Wilmington, and the Seahawks have a chance to tighten up the conference race if they can go to Hofstra and stop its 12-game winning streak.
- Two teams making a rare TV appearance: Tennessee State is at Tennessee Tech (7 p.m., ESPNU). Also in the OVC is an important game as Belmont is at Jacksonville State. The Gamecocks already defeated the Bruins on the road two weeks earlier.
- Sun Belt leader Georgia State takes to the road to face South Alabama.
- One of the most anticipated games of the year in the Big South has Gardner-Webb at Radford (9 p.m., ESPNU). The two have combined to pick off a number of big names this year.
- A busy night in the WCC has some games to watch. Loyola Marymount every so often gives Gonzaga fits; the Lions have a massive task ahead of them tonight in Spokane. San Francisco also tries not to letdown after battling the Zags before falling on Saturday, and it faces a tricky one at Pacific. Also, Lorenzo Romar is starting to make strides at Pepperdine, which hosts BYU (11 p.m., ESPNU), and rivals Santa Clara and Saint Mary’s also get together.
- What once would’ve been one of the more anticipated games of the season is not that now, as disappointing Oregon goes to ho-hum Arizona (9 p.m., ESPN).
- Is Oregon State on the verge of making a run in the Pac-12? The Beavers look close, are 3-0 in the league, and could solidify themselves as contenders if they can win at Arizona State (10 p.m., FS1).
- Finally, a very surprising battle for the lead in the WAC as Missouri-Kansas City is at Cal State Bakersfield.
Enjoy your Thursday.
Twitter: @HoopvilleAdam
