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Wednesday, December 25, 2024
With the Maui Invitational, Kris Dunn, Ben Simmons and a renewal of an old Big 8 rivalry, Monday night saw a number of heavy hitters in action. Incredibly, though, a school that has never been a household name just keeps forcing itself into the national conversation, too.
VCU bounced back from a blowout loss to Villanova to do more than just take third place in the Legends Classic.
The Legends Classic final matchups are set, and with that in mind, a look at the numbers from the semifinals is in order. They give an idea of how Pittsburgh and Stanford won to meet in the final.
Sunday’s 67-45 blowout win over Rhode Island might have been a picture-perfect game for Cleveland State. It fit the way the Cleveland State mentor wants his team to play, from the style of play to what the stat sheet would show to the final result.
Boston University is establishing an identity as a resilient team in the early going, a theme they continued with two wins in Rhode Island this weekend at the Legends Classic subregional.
Vanderbilt proves that poise and resiliency are critical to winning — a lesson that Texas learned the hard way in two games against Oregon State and NC State in the TicketCity Legends Classic in East Ruthersford, N.J.
The ACC looks wide open, not to mention so-so, after North Carolina and Duke, and perhaps Florida State. That, along with what they showed at the Legends Classic, means a team like North Carolina State should be seen as one of those teams that can finish in that top half.
It took a few years, but Oregon State looks ready to turn the corner into a contender. The early signs are there now that the talent is in place, and they have a good win to build on as well.
Conference teams need big wins in upcoming holiday tournaments to erase the memories of Georgia Tech’s blowout loss to Kennesaw State and Wake Forest’s season-opening fiasco against Stetson.
Over the years I have maintained an interest in the statistical analysis of basketball. Today the term “tempo-free stats” is the hot terminology used by those breaking down numbers. Tempo-free is self-explanatory. It provides a number that can assess a team or performer whether said team walks the ball up the floor or pushes it to a track meet pace.
