By Aidan Joly
Another weekend gone in the college basketball season.
The thing that became most important for me and very apparent this weekend is how bad Louisville is. Sure, we knew that, but it lost by 14 on Saturday to a team that had one win in the ACC coming in (Notre Dame) and the game wasn’t even that close, with the Cardinals trailing by 20+ for most of the afternoon.
Louisville dropped to 0-10 in the ACC with this loss and 2-19 overall and has now dropped into the 300s in KenPom, right in between Tennessee Tech and Idaho. You now have to question if this team is even capable of winning a conference game. Its only two wins came in December, against Western Kentucky and Florida A&M. It seemed bad after the first three losses all the way back in November, but it’s tough to think that it would get this bad. No ACC team has gone 0-the conference since Pitt’s 0-18 campaign in 2017-18.
This is happening in Kenny Payne’s first season after Chris Mack was fired midseason last year. It’s interesting to fathom how a program with the resources of Louisville can blow a hire this badly, because it’s already trending in that direction. It’s tough to see him getting fired at the end of this season even if the Cards don’t win a game the rest of the year, but he’ll surely go into next year on the hot seat.
Elsewhere, both Creighton and West Virginia seem to finally have some momentum. Creighton was a top-10 team coming into the year, but a six-game losing streak in November and December dropped it to 6-6 and causing many to label the team as a bust – albeit with some injuries at the time. However, the Bluejays have gone 7-2 since that loss to Marquette on December 16 and are up to 7-3 in Big East play, good for fourth in the conference. It is also No. 11 in KenPom in Monday’s rankings. Maybe that preseason hype was worth something.
Another team that’s gaining momentum is West Virginia. The Mountaineers started Big 12 play 0-5 after going 10-2 in nonconference play. Since that losing streak ended, WVU has won three of four, including a nonconference upset win against Auburn on Saturday in the Big 12-SEC Challenge. West Virginia is still just 2-6 in league play and will probably have to get to seven or eight league wins to go dancing, but right now the momentum is on its side.
Another notable result in the Big 12-SEC Challenge was Oklahoma’s decimation of No. 2 Alabama, 93-69. It was a thorough beatdown in Norman and Grant Sherfield put on a fantastic performance, scoring 30 points on 11-20 shooting, including 4-5 from three. The Tide shot just under 38% from the field overall and 6-22 from three, while Oklahoma shot 57% from the field and 9-13 from three.
One final Big 12-SEC game to talk about with Kansas getting a much-needed win against Kentucky at Rupp Arena, 77-68. It limited Wildcat big man Oscar Tschiebwe in ways that other team this season hadn’t, even if that’s him scoring 18 points and grabbing nine rebounds. Jalen Wilson is a bonafide star for the Jayhawks as he put on another show, scoring 22 points on 9-18 from the field. Kansas has its rematch with Kansas State on Tuesday, this one at Allen Fieldhouse. Should be a great one. If it’s anywhere close to the first game between the two, it will be.
Finally, one Big Ten and one Big East piece to hit on. Ohio State lost by 16 to Indiana on Saturday, dropping the Buckeyes to 3-7 in the Big Ten and 11-10 overall. It’s a real down season in Columbus this year and it would need to do a lot to get to the NCAA tournament. It would be surprising if Chris Holtmann were to lose his job for this, but it is interesting to see if he would leave for Texas if offered, to kind of get out of there before Ohio State’s administration can get rid of him.
Another floundering team is Villanova, who blew a late lead and lost to Providence on Sunday. It is now 4-6 in Big East play and 10-11 overall. That happened in Justin Moore’s return to the court in his first game since he tore his Achilles in Villanova’s Elite Eight win last March. It’s not looking good in Kyle Neptune’s first season at the helm and it now seems likely that the bracket won’t include Villanova for the first time since 2012.
My top games this week:
- Baylor at Texas, Monday, 9 p.m.
- Kansas State at Kansas, Tuesday, 8 p.m.
- West Virginia at TCU, Tuesday, 9 p.m.
- Providence at Xavier, Wednesday, 6:30 p.m.
- San Francisco at St. Mary’s, Thursday, 11 p.m.
- Kansas at Iowa State, Saturday, 12 p.m.
- Miami at Clemson, Saturday, 3 p.m.
- Purdue at Indiana, Saturday, 4 p.m.
- Texas at Kansas State, Saturday, 4 p.m.
- Gonzaga at St. Mary’s, Saturday, 10:30 p.m.
AJ Hoops 