Good Sunday morning…
Hoopville czar Phil Kasiecki gets a break for one more day from the Morning Dish. Once again, in the spirit of Phil’s look at the state of conference races as conference play begins in full soon, we continue a conference-by-conference look at each league’s biggest surprise storylines so far this season.
We’ve gone from A (America East) to O (Ohio Valley), and now we pick up the rest:
Pac-12: Stanford is 11-1. Regardless of how strong that 11-1 is (evidence supporting: a 19-point win over Oklahoma; a one-point loss to Butler; evidence against: a home-stuffed slate with its lone true road game until mid-January having been at lowly and nearby San Jose State; needing a late escape at home against San Francisco), the Cardinal are on pace to easily surpass last year’s 15-16 mark.
Patriot: Lafayette is off to an encouraging 7-3 start including wins over Pennsylvania and Princeton and a blowout of Saint Joseph’s. Maybe even more surprising to us, though: Bucknell is just 4-9. The Bison suffered heavy personnel losses the last two years, but Nathan Davis has regularly had deep teams so many might’ve expected the transition this year to be a bit more seamless than it has been. Bucknell has struggled especially on defense so far, though.
SEC: Not sure anyone expected just how much Texas A&M would struggle in the first year for Buzz Williams. The Aggies lost to Fairfield as part of an oh-fer trip to the Orlando Invitational, struggled to defeat Louisiana-Monroe, Troy and Texas A&M-Corpus Christi at home, and were drilled by Gonzaga by 30. At least there was a recent win over Oregon State.
Southern: Western Carolina has made significant improvement in just two years under Mark Prosser, and the Catamounts at 9-3 have already guaranteed bettering their 7-25 mark of last year. Collectively for the SoCon, another surprise may be just how little the top teams (East Tennessee State, Furman, UNC Greensboro, Wofford) have dropped off despite significant losses for many from last year. This deserves to be a two-bid league in the NCAA Tournament in March.
Southland: Let’s be real-Stephen F. Austin’s going into Cameron Indoor Stadium and beating Duke-in overtime-was the stunner of the year and one of the all-time upsets in the sport’s history. That isn’t to downplay SFA, which has proven it is back after a rare down year last season, but has far more to do with just how hard it is for a team like the Lumberjacks to go on the road to a place like Duke and get a road win.
SWAC: Alabama A&M was 5-27 a year ago, but the Bulldogs’ 3-7 record includes three solid wins-against Troy, Jacksonville State and North Alabama-and competitive performances in losses of late at Miami (Fla.) and South Alabama. Former UAB standout Dylan Howard appears to be starting to get things turned around at a program that has long struggled at the D-I level.
Summit: There’s not a lot so far, but it does amaze a little bit just how South Dakota State continues to churn along even after another coaching change and the loss of perhaps the greatest player in league history. The Jackrabbits lost Mike Daum, coach T.J. Otzelberger and a whole lot else, but are still 9-6 this year and have been competitive in almost every loss, even pushing Arizona on the road.
Sun Belt: What’s down is up, what’s up is down. The early league standings after two games of Sun Belt play have Appalachian State, Arkansas-Little Rock and Arkansas State all at 2-0, and the latter has the league’s best overall record at 10-3. Those three teams combined to go 18-36 in league a year ago (34-61 overall) with all finishing ninth or worse in the 12-team group, but they’re a collective 25-12 so far.
West Coast: Pacific appeared to be in for a tough year with a roster full of newcomers after a 14-18 record last year, but the Tigers but are 12-4. Also, Santa Clara is 12-2 with wins over California and Washington State, though their two losses-at Stanford and Nevada-were by a combined 49 points.
Western Athletic: Billy Donlon was one of the great unsung coaching hires of the past offseason, and he is already paying dividends at Missouri-Kansas City. The Kangaroos are 7-7 already and on pace to blow past their 11-win season last year. UMKC already has wins over East Carolina, George Washington, South Dakota and Toledo and should be a tough out in the WAC.
Side Dishes:
- While the Collusion Football Playoff invitational contested yet another completely uninteresting semifinal, CBS provided some very welcome counter-programming with one of college basketball’s best rivalries. Like so many high-profile games this season, it wasn’t pretty (more on this CBB problem next week), but Kentucky pulled out a 78-70 overtime win over Louisville. Tyrese Maxey scored 27 points and Nick Richards added a double-double (13 points, 10 rebounds) including seven points in OT. The Wildcats also held Jordan Nwora to just eight points. Free throw shooting also was a factor: UK made 21 of 25, while the Cardinals hit just 9 of 20.
- The day’s stunner came at the expense of UCLA, where perhaps results like this shouldn’t be a surprise anymore. Cal State Fullerton-just 3-10 coming in and losers of seven straight-went into Pauley Pavilion and earned a 77-74 victory. The Titans’ record is somewhat deceiving; injuries have been a factor, especially with four-year starter and frontcourt stalwart Jackson Rowe missing the team’s first 10 games. Rowe totaled 17 points and 11 boards here and Fullerton drilled 14 of 24 from three-point range. Afterwards, Bruins coach Mick Cronin blasted his team’s defense and talked about its need of some humbling.
- A good day for the Big West also saw UC Riverside move to 9-5 with an improbable 60-57 win at disappointing Fresno State. The Bulldogs led 55-35 with less than 10 minutes to play but the Highlanders finished the game on a 25-2 run. Wow. Zyon Pullin hit the go-ahead shot with 11 seconds left, and UCR is now 9-5 with wins at Nebraska, San Jose State and now Fresno.
- Wisconsin won at Tennessee 68-48. The battle-tested Badgers winning, even in Knoxville, isn’t a shocker; the margin of the result was. Wisconsin was hot from three (11 of 26), but the Volunteers looked lost without point guard and No. 2 scorer Lamonte Turner, who is done for the season due to injury. Will be quite interesting to see how the Vols respond.
- Georgetown won its sixth straight, handling fellow District of Columbia dweller American 80-60. Other buy game fodder: Duke drilled Brown 75-50, Purdue rolled up a 97-62 win over Central Michigan, Memphis blew out New Orleans 97-55 and Butler shut down Louisiana-Monroe 67-36.
- BYU held off Oral Roberts 79-73 in a very entertaining game. An outstanding frontcourt duel saw the Cougars’ Yoeli Childs (23 points, seven rebounds) have his hands full with ORU’s big duo of Emmanuel Nzekwesi (23 points, 17 boards) and Kevin Obanor (also a double-double with 12 and 10). Jake Toolson was a difference-maker, though, with 22 points.
- A game that looked good on paper turned out to be a dud as Minnesota drilled Florida International 89-62. Daniel Oturu continues to be one of this season’s breakout players-21 points, 20 rebounds-and the Gophers held FIU to 36% shooting.
- Belmont earned a nice road win, taking down Western Kentucky convincingly, by a 79-62 score as Tyler Scanlon scored 18 to lead five in double figures and the Hilltoppers shot just 34.8%.
- Bradley topped Toledo 78-66 as senior Darrell Brown-Penny Hardaway’s godson-scored 29 points. Earlier in the day the Braves announced that guard Danya Kingsby had been suspended one game and promising freshman Stephan Gabriel had been dismissed from the team for repeated team rule violations (Respected Braves beat writer Dave Reynolds of the Peoria Journal Star reported on it here)
- Montana State drew some early blood in the Big Sky, beating Sacramento State at its own game with a 66-51 win in Bozeman.
- Road teams started hot in the Colonial as Charleston (76-65 over Drexel), Northeastern (61-45 at Towson) and Hofstra (an 82-76 victor over James Madison) all won. The lone home team to prevail was Delaware, which moved to 11-3 with an 82-68 win over UNC Wilmington as Nate Darling starred again with 21 points including five threes.
- Lastly, a salute to Morgan State, going to Loyola Marymount and winning 74-71 behind Troy Baxter’s 27 points.
Today’s Menu: The NFL season wraps up but it is still a busy hoops day with teams coming back from a holiday break.
- There’s a big one early as West Virginia takes on Ohio State in a battle of ranked teams in Cleveland (Noon Eastern, FS1). WVU is still something of a team of mystery, but the Mountaineer’s defense should challenge the Buckeyes.
- Bryant, one of the better teams in the NEC, meets Maryland (Noon, Big Ten Network). Also at the same time, Penn State hosts Cornell (Noon, ESPNU).
- Undefeated Liberty faces almost certainly its stiffest test as it travels to face LSU (1:30 p.m., SEC Network). The Tigers already have lost at home to East Tennessee State, though the Flames’ lack of size will be a challenge.
- Iona is at Colorado (2 p.m., Pac-12 Network). The Gaels will have their hands full against the Buffaloes’ size but are always worth keeping an eye on in these situations.
- Stanford can all but stamp its arrival this season if it can knock off Kansas (3 p.m., ABC), as Jerod Haase gets his alma mater to visit.
- Arkansas is at Indiana (6 p.m., Big Ten Network) in a matchup of teams lurking outside the top 25.
- Tulsa knocked off Kansas State at home last year; now, the Wildcats try to return the favor (6 p.m.). Expect a defensive grinder.
- Harvard is at California (6 p.m., Pac-12 Network), the Crimson beginning a Golden State back-to-back that includes San Francisco the next night.
- Richmond has been impressive, but a win at Alabama would possibly qualify as the Spiders’ best yet (6:30 p.m., SEC Network).
- On a day full of buy games, Western Michigan at Michigan State (8 p.m., Big Ten Network) at least has some regional interest.
- The night wraps up with a wonderful matchup of state schools that just happen to be 5,000 miles apart: Maine at Hawaii (11 p.m.). Other than Hawaii meeting Alaska-Anchorage in the 1989 Great Alaska Shootout quarterfinals, you’ll have a hard time finding better matchmaking than this.
Have a blessed Sunday.
