By Aidan Joly
Michigan and Louisville continuing their remarkable turnaround this season, teams getting big wins in the SEC, and another SEC team struggling highlighted this weekend in college basketball.
Let’s get into the headlines from the weekend.
Louisville keeps it rolling
Louisville has won six games in a row after going on the road Saturday and beating Pitt 82-78.
It’s a fantastic turnaround under first year coach Pat Kelsey. With 12 wins on the season, the Cardinals have matched their win total from the past two seasons combined.
Outside of Duke, Louisville has been playing as well as anybody in the ACC. A great group of four guys in Reyne Smith, Chucky Hepburn, Terrence Edwards and J’Vonne Hadley has been a dangerous group. All finished with 13 or more points in the win against Pitt.
After two of the worst seasons in program history, Kelsey is quickly turning this program around. As long as they don’t collapse in the next two months, Louisville will dance for the first time since 2019.
Cooper Flagg is a superstar
Duke’s amazing freshman had his best game of the season on Saturday in an 86-78 win against Notre Dame. Flagg finished with 42 points on 11-14 from the field and went 16-17 from the free throw line. Oh yeah, and he added six rebounds and seven assists.
The performance set an ACC freshman record for points in a single game. He also came one point shy of tying the program’s single game record. It was just the fifth 40+ point performance in program history.
Duke is the best team in the ACC right now and one of the best in the country. Flagg is easily the best player and will be in the conversation for national player of the year. Saturday’s performance showed why.
Auburn holds its breath
Auburn held on for a 66-63 win against South Carolina on Saturday.
However, it suffered a major loss in Johni Broome, its best player, who went down with an ankle injury during the game. It was diagnosed as an ankle sprain and he will be out at least a week, perhaps longer.
Thankfully for the Tigers, the injury was not as bad as it initially looked, but Broome will miss time. Hopefully, it is not too long. Auburn can’t afford to miss him for too many games, especially so as it debuted at No. 1 in the nation in Monday’s AP poll.
The Tigers play Mississippi State at home on Tuesday, followed by a road game against newly ranked Georgia on Saturday. Then, a battle with former No. 1 Tennessee on Jan. 25. Auburn will need him back by then.
Ranked Georgia!
Speaking of Georgia, the Bulldogs are in the AP poll for the first time since 2011, debuting on Monday as No. 23 in the nation.
The Bulldogs are certainly benefitting from the SEC being as good as it is, but Georgia is a good team. It is 14-2 on the season and has gotten off to a 2-1 start in SEC play, coming off back-t0-back wins against Kentucky and Oklahoma.
Freshman Asa Newell has been as advertised, while Dakota Leffew, Silas Demary Jr. and De’Shayne Montgomery have become a very good core for Mike White’s team.
It will have the program’s biggest game in recent memory on Saturday when it hosts the aforementioned Auburn, but that is not before a road game against Tennessee on Wednesday. A win in either of those games would be just massive for its hopes.
This is a program that has not reached the NCAA tournament since 2015 and has fallen on very hard times. That can change this year.
Elsewhere in the SEC, Alabama and Kentucky both got big road wins against Texas A&M and Mississippi State. Both are very good teams and will be contenders for the SEC title.
Arkansas’ struggles
One team in the SEC that has not done as well as the others is Arkansas.
In its first year under John Calipari, the Razorbacks has limped to an 0-3 start in SEC play. It has not won a game since a win against Oakland on Dec. 30 and is 2-5 against high major opponents, and one of them was against lowly Miami in the ACC-SEC challenge.
Highly touted transfer Johnell Davis has been a major disappointment and is beginning to see his minutes dwindle. He did not score in Saturday’s loss to Florida and went 0-8 from the field. Adou Thiero has been inconsistent. D.J. Wagner has struggled.
Arkansas is still probably on the right side of the bubble right now, but things could unravel quickly if it doesn’t start winning some games. It goes on the road for its next two, playing LSU on Wednesday and Missouri on Saturday. It needs a couple wins.
Utah State is 16-1
How about Jerrod Calhoun’s Utah State Aggies, who are 16-1 and 6-0 in the Mountain West after a home win against Boise State on Saturday.
Calhoun has done wonders with the program in year one. The duo of Ian Martinez and Mason Falslev is perhaps the best in the Mountain West. The team’s only loss was a two-point loss to UC San Diego on Dec. 17.
Through the past few years Utah State has quietly been one of the best programs in the country. On Monday the Aggies debuted at No. 22 in the nation.
This is a team that will win a ton of games over the next few months and will have a great chance to make a deep run in March.
The best Big Ten teams
The best teams in the Big Ten are certainly beginning to separate themselves. That was apparent on Sunday especially, when Purdue kicked Nebraska in the teeth in a 104-68 win, Michigan State beat Northwestern 78-68 in a game that wasn’t as close as the score indicated, and Michigan beat Washington 91-75. More on the Wolverines in a minute.
It feels like the top four group in the Big Ten right now is Purdue, Michigan State, Michigan and Illinois in whatever order you want to put them in. There is a fairly clear second tier too that is made up of Oregon, Wisconsin and Maryland.
It’s an interesting way to look at the new-look Big Ten, but that is what is happening so far.
Michigan is winning games
Speaking of the Wolverines, it has been a fantastic turnaround in year one under Dusty May.
Michigan is 5-0 in Big Ten play after the win against Washington, making them 13-3 overall. It is a very smart team that plays both offense and defense at a very high level, resembling May’s teams at Florida Atlantic.
The group of Vladislav Goldin, Danny Wolf, Tre Donaldson and Roddy Gayle has been great. The two big-man system with Goldin and Wolf has worked wonders.
Michigan is certainly on track to make the NCAA tournament for the first time since 2021. It will face Minnesota on Thursday in a game that should be a victory, followed by another winnable game against Northwestern on Sunday.
AJ Hoops 