The Big 12 has had quite a week, and that continued on Friday night. Baylor, Kansas and West Virginia had already claimed championships in tournaments, and Oklahoma State kept that going with an absolute drubbing of a good Ole Miss team by a 78-37 margin to win the NIT Season Tip-Off.
This was a game of complete dominance, although one can probably figure it was in part an off night for Ole Miss and in part a great night for Oklahoma State. The Rebels shot below 26 percent from the field, including 1-20 from long range, and committed 20 turnovers while being out-rebounded.
It was one thing for the Big 12’s elite to win tournaments, as Baylor, Kansas and West Virginia should all be contenders, although the Mountaineers are fresh off a bad year. Less has been expected of Oklahoma State, so this is a little bigger statement. Picked sixth in the Big 12 preseason poll, the Cowboys are 7-0 with wins over College of Charleston (road), Yale, Syracuse and Ole Miss, and while the first two won’t stand out, they are good wins against teams who should contend in their league. It’s a good way to head into Wednesday night’s matchup with Georgetown and the three after it: Wichita State, Houston (road) and Minnesota.
Compared to a lot of teams these days in power conferences, the Cowboys are a downright old team. They start three seniors and two sophomores as part of a balanced attack. They placed no one on any of the preseason award watch lists, so that’s how they will win.
The week began with Baylor taking home the Myrtle Beach Invitational by beating Villanova, then Kansas won the Maui Invitational by beating Dayton and West Virginia won the Cancun Challenge with a win over Wichita State. It’s all part of the conference boasting a 53-11 mark overall, the best winning percentage in any conference, and 10 of those wins are over other power conferences (including the Big East).
With just a couple of days left, the Big 12 leads the way in this category, but hasn’t sewn it up yet. The ACC has claimed two (Duke in the 2K Empire Classic and Virginia in the Hall of Fame Tip-Off) but could claim two more in the next couple of days, the SEC has likewise claimed two (Florida in the Charleston Classic and Auburn in the Legends Classic), while the Big Ten and Big East each have one, and one of the two will get another on Sunday.
Side Dishes
Tournament/showcase roundup:
- Michigan capped a storybook three days in the Bahamas by handling Gonzaga 82-64 in the championship of the Battle 4 Atlantis. Third place went to North Carolina, who held off Oregon 78-74, while Seton Hall took fifth place with an 84-76 win over Iowa State and Alabama took seventh place by taking care of Southern Miss 83-68.
- In the Orlando Invitational, the story has been Markus Howard, as the Marquette senior followed up his 40-point effort in their quarterfinal win with 51 points on Friday as the Golden Eagles advanced to the final with a 101-79 win over USC. Howard is the first player in Big East history to post back-to-back 40-point games. The Golden Eagles will take on Maryland, who survived against Harvard 80-73 to open the day. In the consolation bracket, Temple took care of Texas A&M 65-42 and Davidson held off Fairfield 67-56 after the Stags rallied from down 16 at the half to get within two at one point.
- Day two of the Wooden Legacy saw Wake Forest take care of Long Beach State 88-75 and Arizona beat Penn 92-82. In the consolation bracket, College of Charleston got 29 points and five assists from Grant Riller en route to a 63-55 win over Providence, and UCF bounced back from a tough loss a night earlier by beating Pepperdine 78-65.
- In the Continental Tire Las Vegas Invitational, Creighton took third place with an 83-76 overtime win over Texas Tech and San Diego State used a big second half to beat Iowa 83-73 in the championship game behind 28 points from Malachi Flynn.
- In the semifinals of the Emerald Coast Classic, Florida State frustrated Tennessee offensively and held on for a 60-57 win, then Purdue edged VCU 59-56 in a back-and-forth nightcap.
Other results of note: DePaul moved to 8-0 with a 73-68 win at Minnesota; Duke bounced back against Winthrop 83-70, but there was more to this game we’ll note below; LSU took care of Missouri State 73-58 behind 20 points and 10 rebounds from Darius Days; and Saint Mary’s won the matchup of the day late by riding big games from their dynamic duo to an 81-73 win over Utah State.
In Duke‘s win over Winthrop, freshman Cassius Stanley suffered what is being described as a muscular injury in his left leg. Early in the second half, he went up for a transition layup, but appeared to land awkwardly as he missed, and the Blue Devils had to defend 4-on-5 for a few seconds. He will have an MRI on Saturday, but the belief is that it is not a knee injury.
Tonight’s Menu
Football again takes center stage as a couple of tournaments take a day off and regular games dominate the slate.
- The Emerald Coast Classic doesn’t take a break as it concludes with four games. The first is Chicago State taking on Alabama State (11 a.m.), then Jackson State battles Chattanooga (1:30 p.m.), Tennessee takes on VCU in the third place game (4 p.m.) and Florida State battles Purdue for the championship (7 p.m.)
- A couple of good ones right out of the gate are Lipscomb traveling to Xavier and Wagner making the short trip to St. John’s (noon)
- In a matchup of academic schools, Princeton visits Bucknell (2 p.m.)
- Georgetown gets a challenge in the form of a visit from UNC Greensboro (2 p.m.)
- Boston College hits the road to take on Richmond (2:30 p.m.)
- Two teams that are off to a good start meet as Dartmouth heads to Bowling Green, while Indiana gets a visit from South Dakota State (4 p.m.)
- Stephen F. Austin tries to build on their big win at Duke as they travel to an Arkansas State team with an identical 5-1 record (5 p.m.)
- Arkansas gets a challenge as Northern Kentucky comes to town (5 p.m.)
- A couple of interesting ones in the early evening are Saint Francis U traveling to Saint Joseph’s and UNLV visiting Cincinnati (7 p.m.)
- A sleeper matchup a bit later is Vanderbilt hosting Tulsa (8 p.m.)
- A pair of games in the Summit League/WAC Challenge are on tap as Western Illinois visits UMKC and Grand Canyon hosts Purdue Fort Wayne (8 p.m.)
- Two undefeated teams meet as Sacramento State travels to Colorado (9 p.m.)
- One of the last games of the night should be a good one as undefeated Eastern Michigan visits a battle-tested UC Irvine team (10 p.m.)
