AJ Hoops

By Aidan Joly

Another week of college hoops is in the books. We are now less than two months away from Selection Sunday. Here’s a recap of the highlights over the weekend.

Kentucky’s Big Z introduces himself

It was revealed on Saturday morning that Kentucky freshman Zvonimir Ivisic would finally be eligible after a three-month battle to get him in the game for the Wildcats.

Ivisic was a highly regarded international prospect from Croatia, but nobody really knew what to expect of him. Opinions definitely varied on if he would be ready to play at this level.

Boy, did he deliver. In his collegiate debut, he scored 13 points, grabbed five rebounds, recorded two assists, three blocks and two steals in just 16 minutes as Kentucky cruised to a 105-96 win against Georgia.

He shot 5-7 from the field and 3-4 from three during the game, too. He was great on defense, too. He stands at 7-foot-2 and was a real interior presence on defense. Five rebounds in 16 minutes isn’t too shabby, either.

It’s unlikely that he will keep up this pace from the field or even be Kentucky’s best player. However, it is clear that this is a massive addition for a Kentucky team that was already humming. He makes a very good team even better. It may lay with him to figure out how far Kentucky makes it in the NCAA tournament.

Kansas gets exposed in loss

The depth of the Kansas Jayhawks coming into the season was going to be depth. It has four good players with Kevin McCullar, Jr., Hunter Dickinson, KJ Adams, Jr. and Dajuan Harris, Jr., but who else will step up?

So far, it has been nobody. And now that we are in the thick of Big 12 play, we are really beginning to see that be exposed. It came to something of a head on Saturday with the Jayhawks losing 91-85 to West Virginia, which came into the day ranked 139th in KenPom.

Sure, Kansas is 15-3, but it now falls to 3-2 in conference play (Kansas leads Cincinnati in the first half as I write this). It ranks 26th in the country in both offense and defense in KenPom, and no other real statistics stand out.

This is not one of the better Kansas teams in recent memory. It is fair to say that Kansas is not the best team in the Big 12, and may not be even in the top three or four. It needs someone to step up down the stretch, or else it may end up in an early exit in March.

Creighton wins triple overtime thriller

The best game of the day happened in Newark, N.J., with Creighton and Seton Hall going three overtimes and Creighton ending up on top, 97-94.

This was a game that was all over the place and both teams had several opportunities to win the game late in regulation and the first two overtimes, but it just never happened. Creighton led by four with 13 seconds to go in the second overtime, but Al-Amir Dawes was fouled while shooting a three, made all three from the charity stripe to make it a one-point game. From there, Seton Hall drew a foul just on a steal off the inbound and Kadary Richmond made 1/2 to tie it up before the game went to a third OT, where Creighton did eventually win it.

Overall, it was one of the best college basketball games of the season so far. Seton Hall had three players with 20+ points, while Richmond had a triple-double. Ryan Kalkbrenner scored 28 points for Creighton, while Trey Alexander had 23, including a three with 29 seconds left in the third OT to give Creighton the lead for good.

A quessential Big East game, it was a lot of fun.

Texas gets much-needed win

After back-to-back losses to West Virginia and UCF, it seemed that the Longhorns’ season was teetering on going off the rails.

However, Texas came up with its biggest win of the season on Saturday, with Tyrese Hunter hitting a layup at the buzzer to knock off Baylor 75-73.

It’s a type of win that can change the momentum of the season. Now, Texas is 2-3 in the Big 12 instead of 1-4, which would have spelled doom in Austin. It was also the team’s first real quality win of the season. It had a conference win against Cincinnati but outside of that the only power conference teams it had beaten were Louisville (does this count?) and LSU.

Texas has Oklahoma on the road on Tuesday and then BYU on the road on Saturday before a home game against Houston on Jan. 29. Work is not done for Texas, it needs to continue getting more wins.

South Carolina keeps rolling

South Carolina is one of the most surprising teams in college basketball this season. It currently sits at 15-3 and 3-2 in SEC play after a convincing 77-64 win against Arkansas on Saturday.

The jury is still somewhat out in SEC play, though. But Meechie Johnson has been one of the bigger revelations in the country this season to the tune of 16.7 PPG, while B.J. Mack has been much better than expected. Myles Stute and Ta’Lon Cooper both have been good as well.

Lamont Paris is doing a heck of a job in year two at the helm in Columbia. South Carolina has not been to the NCAA tournament since its surprising run to the Final Four in 2017 (South Carolina has only been to the tournament twice this century!?), that drought may end in a handful of weeks.

We have a coaching change

The first domino fell in the high major coaching carousel on Monday, with DePaul firing Tony Stubblefield in the middle of his third season the helm. Former Marist and James Madison head coach Matt Brady will run the Blue Demons the rest of the way this year.

DePaul is 3-15 this season and fell to 0-7 in Big East play after a 74-60 loss to Butler on Saturday. Its last win came against Chicago State on Dec. 30. Stubblefield went 28-54 in his time with the program.

There may be some interesting candidates for the job – more on that tomorrow though.

By Aidan Joly

The past two nights have brought seven unranked teams taking down ranked teams. They all ranked in terms of how surprising they were, but let’s discuss each of the eight teams that pulled off upsets.

(This is in order of the ranked team they beat)

Nebraska beats No. 1 Purdue

A dream season is unfolding in Lincoln as the Cornhuskers now sit at 13-3 after an 88-72 win against Purdue on Tuesday night.

The win gives Nebraska its best win of the season and what will surely end up being its signature win of the season. Keisei Tominaga is becoming one of the premier shooters in the country, while Rienk Mast has become one of the most impactful transfer adds around. Tominaga 19 points and hit five threes in the win against Purdue, while Mast scored 18 points on 8-17 from the field.

On top of that, Brice Williams has been a very solid third option scoring and also grabbed 11 rebounds in the win. Juwan Gary rounds out the four players who average in double figures.

At 3-2 in Big Ten play, this is the first time in the Fred Hoiberg era that Nebraska has been above .500 in league play in January.

Some will remember that Nebraska won five of its last six regular season games last season and the momentum is really shifting in Lincoln. Now, there is a real chance that the program can make its first NCAA tournament appearance in a decade.

Iowa State beats No. 2 Houston

There are no more undefeated teams in college basketball as the Cyclones took down No. 2 Houston 57-53 on Tuesday.

Iowa State is now 1-1 in Big 12 play and 12-3 overall after the victory. The Cyclones picked up some votes in the AP rankings but did not crack the top 25, but are sure to pick up some more AP points this week.

The key for Iowa State this year has been defense, ranking third in the country in KenPom’s adjusted defensive efficiency. It is also one of the best teams in the country in forcing turnovers, which it forced Houston into 16 turnovers on Tuesday night.

Tamin Lipsey is one of the best defensive players in the country. He averages 3.3 steals per game and grabbed eight of them in one game against Prairie View A&M in December. Big man Hason Ward missed nine games with a foot injury suffered in November, but has been back for Iowa State’s last three games. He’s still playing somewhat limited minutes, but is very good as well.

The Cyclones should finish in the top half of the Big 12. This team is a group that will make noise the last two months of the season.

UCF beats No. 3 Kansas

How about this one?! After losing by 25 to Kansas State in its first-ever Big 12 league game and looking totally overmatched while doing so, the Knights turn around and take down Kansas in Orlando 65-60 on Wednesday night.

Similar, Johnny Dawkins’ team hangs its hat on defense. It ranks eighth in the country in turnover percentage – Kansas turned the ball over 18 times in the loss. It also blocked seven Jayhawk shots, with CJ Walker recording three of them. It limited Hunter Dickinson to 12 points and KJ Adams to 10. Dickinson’s 12 was his second-lowest scoring output of the season.

It is still going to be quite a learning curve for UCF to really be competitive in the Big 12 moving forward and the Knights will likely struggle, but this win is a stunner that will remain a proud moment for the entire season.

But hey, maybe they’ll surprise. Stranger things have happened.

Mississippi State beats No. 5 Tennessee

The Bulldogs beat Tennessee in Starkville on Wednesday night 77-72.

The common denominator remains the same here – defense. Chris Jans’ team ranks 10th in the country in defensive efficiency, is ninth in the country in defensive effective field goal percentage and sixth in the nation in opponent three-point percentage. It has held teams to shooting just 27% from three this season. That was right on the money in the win as Tennessee shot 8-29 from three, which is 27.6%.

Mississippi State did lose the turnover battle 18-16.

DJ Jeffries did not have much of a scoring output at only four points, but grabbed five steals and also blocked a shot in 32 minutes of action. It didn’t get the scoring from starters that it needed but got that lift from Josh Hubbard, who scored a career-high 25 points on 8-15 from the field.

Mississippi State is one of those teams on the bubble as well but now, it has a great win that will last all the way to March. Right now, it likely puts them on the right side of the bubble. Plenty of more opportunities to grab another great win or two await in the SEC.

TCU beats No. 9 Oklahoma

If you remember, the Horned Frogs started the season 7-0 before it lost to Clemson in a neutral site game on Dec. 9. The 80-71 win over Oklahoma on Wednesday night improved this group to 12-3 and 1-1 in the Big 12.

It’s not unfair to say that Oklahoma took advantage of one of the easier schedules in the country and got into the top 10 in the country because of that. So, the win does feel like more of an indictment on Oklahoma than it does praising TCU.

We’ve known all along that Jamie Dixon has a good team this season. Emanuel Miller, Jameer Nelson Jr. and Avery Anderson is one of the best trios in the Big 12 and should continue to win games consistently.

But still, this win is TCU’s first quad 1 win of the season. In the Big 12 there’s lots of chances for those but after going 0-3 in quad 1 games leading up to this, the Horned Frogs did need to get a win like this.

Butler beats No. 11 Marquette

The Bulldogs picked up the biggest win of the second era of Thad Matta in Indianapolis, taking down Marquette on the road 69-62 on Wednesday night.

Butler caught Marquette on a bad shooting night. The Golden Eagles were 5-31 from three as part of a night where it shot just under 33% from the field overall. Kam Jones was 1-10 from behind the arc, while Tyler Kolek was 0-7 from three. Kolek had just two points in total as he was 1-13 from the field.

Four Butler Bulldogs finished in double figures, with Pierre Brooks II and Landon Moore scoring 14 points each while Jalen Thomas and Posh Alexander had 10 each.

Butler is still in something of a rebuild and has struggled in some games – this win only improves it to 2-3 in Big East play. It is 11-5 after the win, but only three of those wins have come against top 100 KenPom teams.

Still, it’s a very quality win and one to be proud of.

Boise State beats No. 17 Colorado State

It was a surprising result in the Mountain West. Colorado State was ranked No. 17 in the country and rising before getting taken down by the Broncos 65-58 on Tuesday.

Again, Boise State is one of the top defensive teams in the country, ranking 33th in the country in defensive efficiency. It forced Isaiah Stevens, usually very sure-handed, into the turning the ball over six times. In total, Colorado State turned the ball over 16 times.

Right now, the Mountain West has three teams ranked in the top 20 in the AP rankings with Utah State and San Diego State checking in there too. The dream of a five-bid Mountain West is still alive. Colorado State, Utah State and San Diego State are looking good at this point, if Nevada takes care of business it will certainly be looking good, while Boise State is trying to play its way onto the bubble. A win like this sure helps. Maybe New Mexico can squeeze onto the bubble too.

Virginia Tech beats No. 22 Clemson

This win barely registers as an upset as Clemson was favored by just 1.5 points, but the Virginia Tech beat the Tigers pretty convincingly, beating them 87-72.

It improved Virginia Tech t0 10-5 overall and 2-2 in ACC play.

Sean Pedulla has been a very solid player in the ACC for several years now and he came up huge in the win, scoring 32 points on 9-16 from the field. He also dished out seven assists Tyler Nickel had 24 points off the bench as well.

The big thing on Wednesday night was Virginia Tech shooting 13-24 from three, good for 54.2%. That was its best performance three all season. Even more impressive was that it did it with Hunter Cattoor, who shoots 41.4% from three, not scoring at all. Pedulla was 6-10 from three, while Nickel was 5-7.

Virginia Tech is still on the outside looking in for the tournament. Only three of its 10 wins are against top 100 KenPom teams and six of the 10 are against top 200 teams (including Wofford, who is ranked at No. 200 even).

Still some work to do for the Hokies, but right now they still project as a mid-pack ACC team. It will need to finish in the top five or so to have a real shot at an at-large bid.

By Aidan Joly

The first full weekend of conference play is in the books and it was glorious.

It was wall-to-wall on Saturday with 12-plus hours of action, plus some intriguing games and storylines on both Friday and Sunday as well.

Let’s get into what happened.

Purdue kicks weekend off with win

Purdue defended home court on Friday night, picking up a 83-78 win against No. 9 Illinois.

The game wasn’t as close as the score indicated, save for Illinois making a run at the end.

Zach Edey didn’t have as large of a scoring output in this one with only 10 points (although that was on 5-5 from the field), he did grab 15 rebounds. Trey Kaufman-Renn came up big to pick up the slack, scoring 23 points on 8-12 from the field and practically willed himself to a win.

Illinois’ Marcus Domask proved himself once again as a big game player, scoring 26 points in the losing effort.

Seton Hall, St John’s make statements

A pair of Big East teams made big statements with wins on Saturday.

Seton Hall was the first to do so, pulling off a 78-75 upset win against No. 7 Marquette, holding off a big charge by the Golden Eagles in the final minutes. The Pirates are now in a tie for the lead in the Big East at 3-1.

That mark includes wins over UConn, Providence and now Marquette, all ranked at the time of the win. It should win its next two games as well against Georgetown and Butler, which would make it 5-1 in league play.

Al-Amir Dawes was huge in the win for the Pirates, scoring 23 points on 7-10 from the field, while leading scorer Kadary Richmond 21 points on 8-16 from the field.

This group has proved to be better than many thought it would be in the preseason and that is a testament to how Shaheen Holloway has built this team. Now, the results are coming. The aforementioned three wins in the Big East so far will prove huge come March and if Seton Hall continues to take care of business, it could very well put the Pirates on the right side of making the NCAA tournament.

Slightly later in the day, St. John’s went into Finneran Pavilion and picked up the program’s first win in that building since Jan. 13, 1993, beating Villanova 81-71.

It was a major statement win for Rick Pitino and the Red Storm, who have made it clear that the team will compete in the top half of the Big East right out of the gate. Also sitting at 3-1 in Big East play, it has done so thus far.

In Saturday’s win, Joel Soriano, Daniss Jenkins and Brady Dunlap all came up big. St. John’s has a home game against Providence on Wednesday before a big meeting against Creighton on Saturday.

Houston is the last undefeated

The Houston Cougars are the final undefeated team in the nation after James Madison took an 81-71 loss to Southern Miss and Ole Miss was blown out 90-64 at the hands on Tennessee, both on Saturday.

The Cougar express kept rolling on Saturday, dispatching West Virginia 89-55 to improve to 14-0. It has road games coming up against Iowa State on Tuesday and TCU on Saturday before returning home on Jan. 17 to face Texas Tech. Its toughest stretch of the season with three road games against BYU (Jan. 23), Texas (Jan. 29) and Kansas (Feb. 3) in the span of four games lurks in the distance.

Another concerning FAU loss

Florida Atlantic took another bad loss on Saturday, falling to Charlotte 70-68 to drop to 1-1 in AAC play.

The Owls have now lost two of their past three and didn’t look the best while beating East Carolina. This team has looked shaky since beating Arizona back on Dec. 23. It’s tough to diagnose what the problem is, but it seems to be just this group having a tough time adjusting to the new level of play.

In this week’s AP poll, the Owls dropped to No. 24 in the country, its lowest mark of the season. If FAU keeps taking these types of losses, it may end up missing the NCAA tournament.

Arizona State is 4-0 in Pac-12 play

Sure, it hasn’t been against the best competition and the Sun Devils will likely need to either win 15+ games in conference play and/or grab a win over Arizona in one of the two meetings, but it has been a semi-surprising start to league play in Tempe.

The first three wins came against Stanford, California and Utah, but the best win came on Saturday with a 76-73 win against Colorado, a team that should be in the top half of the Pac-12 this season.

Adam Miller has been a nice revelation for Bobby Hurley’s group. He scored 18 points in the win against Colorado to up his average point total to 13.2 per game after he didn’t play until Dec. 16. Frankie Collins should be more consistent scoring-wise, but some other weapons such as Jose Perez and Jamiya Neal have done a nice job.

The Pac-12 is definitely weak, but ASU could find themselves on the bubble in two months.

Wake Forest proves to be legit

Wake Forest is a team on the rise in the ACC. It improved to 3-0 in league play with an 86-82 overtime win against Miami on Saturday.

Now at 11-3 overall, the Demon Deacons haven’t lost since Nov. 19 and are on a nine-game winning streak.

Wake Forest did start the season 2-3, but things changed when Gonzaga transfer Efton Reid got a waiver to play. He has become one of the best rebounders in the country, averaging 9.3 per game and has had three games with 11 or more boards. He had 11 in the win against Miami. At the beginning of the year Steve Forbes’ team didn’t have a true interior presence, but Reid, who stands at 7-foot-0, has solved that issue.

With Hunter Sallis playing like one of the best guards in the ACC, Kevin Miller having some huge games as of late and Cameron Hildreth being better than expected, Wake Forest has a very dangerous three-guard attack that can do well against any team.

UNC is very reliable

Staying in the ACC, gone seems to be the high variance North Carolina teams we have seen in the past couple of years.

This year’s edition of the Tar Heels is one of the most reliable teams in the country. It proved that once again by going on the road and beating No. 16 Clemson 65-55 at Littlejohn Coliseum.

What’s different about these Tar Heels? Defense and experience. North Carolina ranks 16th in the country in defensive efficiency after ranking 46th in the country in that stat last season. In its last three games, it has allowed just 57.3 points per game as well. On Saturday, UNC limited Clemson to 1-18 from three, the Tigers’ worst performance from three this season by a significant margin.

Experience is also a big part of this group. The Tar Heels ranked fourth in the country in KenPom’s D-1 experience. UNC was 24th in the country last year, but was 212th in the country in 2021-22 and 263rd in 2020-21 – which was Roy Williams’ final season in Chapel Hill. Hubert Davis seems to be figuring out that experience wins games and we are seeing the results this season.

More Michigan drama

Wolverine fans can and should be distracted by its football team playing in the national championship game on Monday night, but it was a bizarre Sunday for its basketball program.

Michigan was playing Penn State at The Palestra, where Penn State plays a home game every few years or so in Philadelphia.

Juwan Howard bizarrely had assistant coach Phil Martelli serve as the acting head coach for the game, citing that Martelli is a Philadelphia native and former St. Joe’s head coach. Martelli’s son Jimmy is an assistant coach at Penn State as well. Howard sat on the bench as an assistant coach for the afternoon.

The decision didn’t work. Michigan did lead by 10 at the half, but blew the lead and lost to Penn State 79-73.

I understand the nice gesture, but it makes little sense. This is a game you come into at 6-8 and had lost three in a row, including a loss to McNeese State and a loss to Minnesota, who was picked last in the Big Ten. You probably need a win here and it didn’t happen. It now falls to 6-9 overall and 1-3 in league play.

It encapsulates the drama that has been this Michigan basketball season. It’s tough to understand.

By Aidan Joly

Conference play has mostly begun across the country. After a light New Year’s weekend, Tuesday was a busy night with some interesting results.

That being said, some midweek thoughts about the current landscape and how things have begun to shake out.

Is Memphis actually the best AAC team?

I’ve talked about the white-hot Memphis Tigers on this blog a few times in recent weeks. The theme has been how Penny Hardaway’s squad probably ends up as the second-best team in the American Athletic behind FAU, but could that be the other way around?

Out of teams in the AP poll right now, it’s fair to say that the owner of the worst loss and the second-worst loss is Florida Atlantic. Some eyebrows were raised following the Owls’ loss to Bryant back on Nov. 18, but that was mostly put off as a one-off bad shooting night.

Even more eyebrows were raised following FAU’s loss to Florida Gulf Coast on Saturday. FGCU came into the game 5-9 and only had two wins against Division I competition – a three-point win against FIU and a win against Georgia Southern, which came into that game 0-11. Of course, on the flip side of that FAU did beat Arizona, one of the better wins for any team in the country.

FAU did beat East Carolina by 15 in its conference opener on Tuesday night but the game felt much closer than that as East Carolina led by one at the half and hung around until the closing minutes.

It’s slightly concerning for FAU. Memphis is a really good team that is still getting better, so the AAC might actually run through FedEx Forum.

Colorado State’s statement win

Colorado State made a statement late Tuesday night with a 76-68 win against New Mexico in Fort Collins to open Mountain West play.

The Rams are now 13-1 on the season after beating a good New Mexico team, which was 12-1 coming into the game.

Isaiah Stevens didn’t really come on much until late in the game, but instead Colorado State’s free-flowing offense ran through Patrick Cartier, who finished with a team-high 21 points on 8-12 shooting. Stevens did end up with 18 points, but many of them did not come until the final eight or 10 minutes of the game.

When you watch Colorado State, the Rams are one of those teams that you just feel like is going to go on a run and pull away at some point. That is what happened Tuesday. New Mexico only trailed by three with just over 15 minutes to play, but Colorado State went on an extended 19-5 run that lasted about eight minutes to break the lead open to 17 with seven and a half minutes to go.

Again, this offense is just so free and looks so experienced. Its offense ranks as the 10th-best in the country on KenPom and ranks third in the country in effective field goal percentage. It has options all over the floor, whether it be Stevens, Cartier, Joel Scott or Nique Clifford, takes good shots, and makes them at a high rate. It’ll be great to watch how the Rams look the rest of the way.

Illinois as real Big Ten threat to Purdue?

Illinois clobbered Northwestern in Champaign on Tuesday night, beating the Wildcats 96-66 to start Big Ten play 2-0 and improve to 11-2 overall.

Of course, you have to talk about the play of Marcus Domask, who finished with 32 points on 11-15 from the field, he was fantastic in this one. Justin Harmon had 20 points off the bench, while Quincy Gurrier had 14 points and Coleman Hawkins added in 13.

Similar to Colorado State, Illinois has a great offense with many weapons and takes good shots. The Illini are the 12th-ranked offense in the country on KenPom, just a couple spots below Colorado State.

However, the thing that sticks out the most about Illinois is the defense. Since a 86-79 loss to Arizona back on Dec. 9, Illinois has allowed an average of just 66.75 points per game in four games. It goes without saying that Illinois has won all four of those games (Colgate, Missouri, Fairleigh Dickinson, Northwestern). Illinois ranks 18th in the country in total defense, third in the country in defensive effective field goal percentage and second in two-point field goal percentage. The Illini barely force any turnovers and ranks 345th in the country there, but Brad Underwood’s squad forces teams into bad shots a lot of the time and that’s the way it wins games.

Now, can they be a real jobber to Purdue? The two teams will face each other at Mackey Arena on Friday night. That will be a huge game in telling who the best team in the Big Ten will be moving forward.

Arizona is sliding

Remember when Arizona was number one in the country a few weeks ago, sitting at 8-0 and being in the national title conversation?

The Wildcats are probably still in that title conversation, but maybe a little less so. Since Tommy Lloyd’s team got the top spot it has lost three of five games, including an 18-point loss to Stanford on Sunday to make it 1-1 in Pac-12 play.

Two of those three losses are forgivable as they came to the aforementioned FAU, as well as Purdue. Both of those losses came on neutral floors, too.

The Stanford loss is the most concerning and the Wildcats would have to hope that loss was just a fluke and they will be fine moving forward. It shouldn’t have much of a problem over the next couple weeks. Arizona will face Colorado on Thursday and Utah on Sunday, both at home. It then takes on Washington State on the road on Jan. 13 before home dates against USC and UCLA.

Pitt falls to 0-3 in ACC play

Pittsburgh, a team that has been towards the bottom of the ACC much of the past handful of years but snuck into the NCAA tournament last year after a solid season, finds itself back at the bottom of the ACC once again early in league play.

The Panthers are now 0-3 in league play following a 70-57 home loss against North Carolina on Tuesday night.

What is going on here?

The main culprit is Blake Hinson, who has regressed as the year has gone on. Through Pitt’s first 10 games Hinson scored 20 or more points six times and then had a 19-point performance in Pitt’s 11th game of the season. Since then, he scored five points against Purdue-Fort Wayne, 11 against Syracuse and then another 11 against UNC, bottoming out with a 4-16 shooting performance.

The other issue is that when Hinson struggles, there isn’t anyone around him who can pick up the slack. Ishmael Leggett only scored four points in 32 minutes, Federiko Federiko had two points in 15 minutes and Jorge Diaz Graham did not score in 12 minutes. Carlton Carrington carried Pitt with 20 points and was the only reason the game wasn’t a blowout. Guillermo Diaz Graham and Jaland Lowe were both respectable with 10 points each.

What’s next? Pitt now finds itself in last place in the ACC. It won’t end up in last place when it’s all said and done, but it can surely find itself in the bottom half of the league and not being in the NCAA tournament conversation.

It does have a get-right game against Louisville on Saturday, but the schedule is tricky after that as Pitt plays Duke twice in a span of 11 days, with a game against Syracuse sandwiched between. It then plays Georgia Tech at home on Jan. 23 before a road game at Miami on Jan. 27. If it comes out of that stretch at 2-7 or 3-6 in ACC play, it’s probably game over.

By Aidan Joly

We are in the last few days of 2023 and for the most part non-conference play has wrapped up.

Some teams have surprised so far this year, while others have disappointed. Here’s a few teams that have either out-performed expectations or have under-performed.

Surprising

Oklahoma

The Sooners are perhaps the most surprising team in the country.

Porter Moser’s squad has missed the NCAA tournament the past two years, but has rattled off an 11-1 start and have gotten as high as No. 7 in the country (Oklahoma is currently ranked N0. 12 in the nation).

The issues with the Sooners teams of late has been a lack of good offensive play, as well as physicality. That resulted in them falling victim to the tough Big 12 which resulted in roster turnover.

Sophomore Otega Oweh has had a massive breakout this season, leading the team with 15.7 PPG, while Siena transfer Javian McCollum has also been great, averaging 15.0 PPG on 38.6% from three. The depth is there too, with Moser going nine deep each night.

The 11-1 start is highlighted with wins against Iowa, USC, Arkansas and Providence. Its only loss was on a neutral floor, really a quasi-road game, to North Carolina in Charlotte.

Expectations were fairly low in Norman, and Oklahoma has surpassed them by a wide margin.

BYU

Staying in the Big 12, one of the conference’s newest teams has been rolling so far.

The Cougars have also started the season 11-1, featuring wins over San Diego State, Arizona State and NC State. Its lone loss came on the road to Utah.

Mark Pope’s team was picked to finish second-to-last in the Big 12 and has responded with the largest scoring margin in the country, beating teams by an average of 29.1 points. BYU also ranks in the top 12 in both offensive and defensive efficiency on KenPom. It is also second in the country in rebounding margin, despite nobody on the team averaging more than 6.5 rebounds per game (that is Noah Waterman).

Jaxson Robertson has led the way with 16.5 PPG, while Spencer Johnson is putting up 11.5 PPG. Expect to see the Cougars nationally relevant the rest of the year.

Ole Miss

The Rebels were picked to finish 12th in the SEC in Chris Beard’s first season at the helm. The season started a little choppy, with one-possession wins against Detroit and Sam Houston State within the first four games.

However, Ole Miss has cleaned it up since then and sit at 12-0 and are one of the last three undefeated teams in the nation. It beat Temple, NC State and Cal, although its most impressive win was one against a white-hot Memphis team on Dec. 2. It also has a win against UCF.

It is a transfer-heavy group, but senior returner Matthew Murrell leads the way with 16.9 PPG. Auburn transfer Allen Flanigas has put up 16.4 PPG, while Saint Peter’s transfer Jaylen Murray averages 15.3 PPG. Two-time transfers Moussa Cisse and Brandon Murry have also carved out roles.

The offense is much better than the defense. The offense ranks 66th in the country on KenPom while the defense ranks 112th. It makes its threes at a 40.7% clip, good for eighth in the country.

Overall it is 80th in the country in KenPom and just cracked the AP top 25 for the first time this week. SEC play might bring some challenges, but there’s no reason to believe this team can’t make the NCAA tournament.

Colorado State

Colorado State was a six-seed in the NCAA tournament in 2022 but took a major dip in an injury-plagued 2022-23, finishing 15-18 and 6-12 in Mountain West play.

However, Niko Medved’s group is back at it this year with an 11-1 start and currently sit at No. 15 in the AP rankings. It did beat Boston College the day before Thanksgiving, but got on everyone’s radars with a 69-48 thumping of then-No. 8 Creighton on Thanksgiving. Since then, it has picked up wins against Colorado and Washington, its only loss coming to Saint Mary’s.

Isaiah Stevens has emerged as one of the best point guards in college basketball, averaging 17.7 PPG while dishing out 7.3 assists and makes 42.4% of his threes.

Colorado transfer Nique Clifford has also done well, and Division II transfer Joel Scott has been better than expected.

For a team picked to finish fifth in the Mountain West, it has been an extremely impressive start. The ceiling will be high for the rest of the year in Fort Collins.

Nebraska

It is still a make-or-break season for Fred Hoiberg to remain at the helm, but it sure looks good so far.

Nebraska did show improvement at the end of last year, winning six of its final nine games, but the Cornhuskers still have not finished higher than 11th in the Big Ten since Hoiberg took over in 2019-20. It goes without saying that the program has not been close to the NCAA tournament conversation in any of those years.

This might be the year for improvement, though. The Huskers are off to a 10-2 start. It did lose by 29 to Creighton and blew a 15-point lead to lose to Minnesota. However, it picked up a couple needle-moving wins in recent weeks, beating both Michigan State and Kansas State, the latter coming on the road. A 19-point win against a Pac-12 team in Oregon State doesn’t hurt, either.

Juwan Gary and Keisei Tominaga have both performed better than expected, while Charlotte transfer Brice Williams has emerged as a great scoring option. Bradley transfer Reink Mast has been a good man in the middle, averaging 13.0 points and 9.9 rebounds per game.

All of this has allowed Nebraska to quietly enter the NCAA tournament discussion – the program hasn’t been to the tournament since 2014. The Big Ten may prove to be tough, but Nebraska should continue to stay at least on the bubble moving forward.

Disappointments

UCLA

The Bruins have one of the most disappointing teams in the country and have slipped to a 6-6 record, including a buy game loss to CSU Northridge. UCLA has lost all but one of its games against power conference teams and its only power conference win was a league-opening win against Oregon State on Thursday night.

UCLA was not ranked in the preseason top 25, but it was expected to be a tournament team. If it wasn’t for freshman Sebastian Mack having a stellar freshman year, it would be really ugly. Aday Mara has struggled and is falling out of the rotation. Burke Buyuktuncel has been hurt and when he has been healthy he’s been ineffective, while Jan Vide and Ilane Fibleiul haven’t been good either.

When you think about how down the Pac-12 is, UCLA will probably have to beat Arizona at least once to make the tournament at this point. With the resources the program has, this is an inexcusable start.

Michigan State

If it wasn’t for a 24-point win against Baylor on Dec. 16, Michigan State would be at the top of this list.

The Spartans came into the season ranked at No. 4 in the country and immediately lost to James Madison on opening night. JMU is still undefeated and has cracked the top 25, so it doesn’t look like as bad of a loss on paper, but it is still a game the Spartans should have won.

Losses to Duke and Arizona are fine, but MSU sits as one of the two teams at 0-2 in Big Ten after losses to Wisconsin and Nebraska. Tyson Walker has played well (19.8 PPG), but everyone else has underachieved to this point, including AJ Hoggard and Jaden Akins. Five-star freshman Xavier Booker has been in and out of the rotation.

MSU has won three in a row, but two of them have come against mid-major opponents. It still has a lot of proving itself to do.

Arkansas

The Razorbacks are 7-5. They have a very good home win against Duke, but that is about it for non-conference play.

Other than the Duke win Arkansas only has one win against high-major competition after it needed double overtime to squeak past Stanford on a neutral floor. It lost to both Memphis and North Carolina in the Atlantis tournament as well.

The most eye-popping loss was a home loss to UNC Greensboro on Nov. 17 and it has also had a few less-than-stellar performances against inferior competition on its home floor, including only beating Lipscomb by three.

Houston transfer Tramon Mark (16.9 PPG) and Temple transfer Khalif Battle (15.3 PPG) have both been good, but nobody else on the team averages in double figures. Trevon Brazile is close though at 9.7 PPG. El Ellis, who was expected to play a big role on offense, has struggled tremendously and has seen his minutes dwindle as a result.

Arkansas was seen as a high-ceiling, low-floor team coming into the year. We are seeing the floor. The good news is that it hasn’t done too much damage to its resume and has plenty of opportunities to come, but is significantly less likely to be as much of a March contender as many thought.

USC

There was much (rightful) hype coming into the season for the Trojans. Andy Enfield was bringing in the top freshman class, including No. 1 prospect Isaiah Collier as well as Bronny James. USC was going to be must-see TV.

Things looked good after a season-opening win against Kansas State but things have come crashing down since then. Now, USC is 6-6 and its resume includes losses to UC Irvine and Long Beach State. Its only power conference win other than the Kansas State win was a triumph over Seton Hall on Thanksgiving.

Of course, James had his health scare that kept him out until Dec. 10, but he will need to give the Trojans a lift. So far signs do not really point to that, in fairly limited minutes he has averaged 5.0 PPG while USC has lost three of the four games he has played in. Collier and Boogie Ellis have both been good in the backcourt and Kobe Johnson has emerged into a double-digit scorer, but the frontcourt hasn’t done much of note. Washington State transfer DJ Rodman (son of Dennis) has taken a major step back and is only averaging 6.2 PPG.

As it stands, the Trojans are not an NCAA tournament team. When you have the number one freshman class, that is just not acceptable.

California

Though Cal already has more wins this season (4) than it had all of last season (3), you can categorize a 4-7 start as disappointing.

There was some hype coming in as new coach Mark Madsen made some big splashes in the transfer portal, depth has been an issue. Texas Tech transfer Jalen Tyson is averaging 19.4 PPG, a good season for him. However, he is not one of the only four players who have appeared in all 11 games so far. Two of those four have been ineffective. Fardaws Aimaq, Jalen Cone and Keonte Kennedy are all in their final seasons of college basketball, meaning a rebuild will be in order next year.

This season has been a disappointment as the Bears started 2-5 while taking losses to Pacific, Montana State and UTEP. Currently its best win was against Santa Clara, which doesn’t move the needle.

Cal’s chances of making the tournament in Madsen’s first year were never high, but the chances are dead before the new year. With Cal heading to ACC next year, this needed to be a big year. It has not been.

By Aidan Joly

The biggest weekend so far this season in college hoops is in the books. Let’s get into what happened.

The weekend started with a big one on Friday night as UConn cruised to a win against Gonzaga in Seattle, a game that I was in attendance for.

We learned that UConn is a real threat to go back-to-back as national champions, while it remains possible for Gonzaga to have something of a down year, which it now appears to be having as it drops to 8-3 and fell to No. 15 in the country in the new AP poll released on Monday afternoon. Some more extended thoughts on that game can be found here.

The biggest game on Saturday was No. 3 Purdue taking down No. 1 Arizona 92-84 in Indianapolis, a win that propelled the Boilermakers back to No. 1 in the country for the first time since it lost to Northwestern on Dec. 1.

In that game, Fletcher Loyer and Braden Smith were the difference-makers, with 27 and 26 points respectively while finishing a combined 20-33 from the field, a great night from those two. Purdue’s offense has been nothing short of terrific this season and showed it again against one of the best defensive teams in the country in the Wildcats.

Caleb Love and Keshad Johnson were both great for Arizona, finishing with 29 and 24 points respectively. On the flip side, Jaden Bradley was a complete no-show, not scoring in 17 minutes and only took one shot.

All in all, these are both very good teams and this was a heavyweight fight between these two.

Earlier in the day, Kansas came back to beat Indiana 75-71 at Assembly Hall. Trey Galloway had perhaps one of the best games in a losing effort that we will see all season long as he finished with 28 points on 12-17 from the field. He fouled out in the closing minutes, which was something of a blow for the Hoosiers.

The loss is a huge missed opportunity for Mike Woodson and the Hoosiers, who seemingly had the game won on several occasions throughout the afternoon. A win against Kansas would have lasted all the way to March, but instead Indiana drops to 7-3 on the season with its best win coming against Michigan.

A question about Indiana that should be asked is the job security of Woodson. It’s tough to say the seat is hot at this point, but it is surely starting to warm, especially so with the names that may pop up in this year’s carousel. Despite signing a 10-year extension to stay at Florida Atlantic, Dusty May seems to be a real candidate for the Louisville job that seems set to open any day now.

It’s worth nothing that May is an Indiana alum who served as a student manager for Bob Knight in the late 90s and may covet the job in Bloomington. Could this be a situation where Indiana wants him and parts ways with Woodson, possibly before they should, in order to get May? Time will tell with that one. Maybe May will wait a few more years to make the jump, or he will stay to turn FAU into a powerhouse in the American Athletic.

On the flip side, it is also worth noting that the last time Indiana went with a coach from a smaller school who succeeded at a high level – Archie Miller at Dayton – it was pretty much a disaster. It feels like May is a better fit, though. Indiana may be wary of potentially making the same mistake twice. Again, we’ll see.

Moving on to a different Big Ten school, Michigan State blew the doors off of No. 6 Baylor, beating the Bears 88-64 in Detroit. What happened here? The Spartans were 5-4 heading into the game, had lost three of its last four and only had one win against a high-major opponent (Butler).

Tom Izzo’s squad got the get-right performance it needed behind 25 points from Tyson Walker, 14 from AJ Hoggard and 11 from Tre Holloman.

The big men are still something of a question, but this has to be confidence-boosting win for this group.

Speaking of schools that have a 5-4 record, enter the UCLA Bruins, who dropped a 67-60 decision to Ohio State in Atlanta on Saturday. After a 3-0 start against low-major opponents, the Bruins have lost four of six with those only wins coming against Division II Chaminade in Maui, and UC Riverside. In that time, it has lost to Marquette, Gonzaga, Villanova and now Ohio State.

The issue here seems to be depth. Sebastian Mack, Adem Bona, Lazar Stefanovic and Dylan Andrews have all performed anywhere from decent to well, but outside of that there is not many options on offense. All four of them average in double figures but then it drops off to Berke Buyuktuncel, who has averaged 5.3 PPG in limited minutes this season.

We discussed the Louisville job earlier and it’s time to bring it up again. Mick Cronin has spent the vast majority of his coaching career in that area of the country. He’s now in his fifth season at UCLA and some seem to be wondering if the Louisville job will be enough to draw him back closer to home. Again, time will tell with that one.

The UCLA-Ohio State game was the first game of the day at the CBS Sports Classic in Atlanta. The second game was Kentucky taking on North Carolina, with the Wildcats picking up a very good 87-83 win against the Tar Heels in what was a heck of a game. It stayed a one or two possession game the entire way, with Antonio Reeves hitting a clutch three with 2:56 to go that gave Kentucky a 79-74 win, a three that really ended up being the dagger at the end of the day. Reeves finished 2-9 from the field, but hit the big one in the end.

It was a balanced attack for John Calipari’s squad, with seven players scoring at least eight points, led by 17 off the bench from Rob Dillingham.

This seems to be the best Kentucky team in the past few seasons, now sitting at 8-2. It did lose a weird one to UNC Wilmington and that loss will hurt the entire season and may cost a seed line, but the Wildcats have two wins against top-10 teams after this game and will have plenty of chances to pick up good wins when it starts SEC play on Jan. 6. It’ll face Louisville on Thursday (will that be Kenny Payne’s final game with the Cardinals?).

North Carolina has something of a strange resume so far, sitting at 7-3 with its three losses coming to Villanova, UConn and now Kentucky. It has wins against Arkansas and Tennessee, though. The Tar Heels seem to be a bit better than expected. They do have one conference game under their belts – a 78-70 win against Florida State on Dec. 2 – it will be fascinating to see what this team really looks like in ACC play.

A few quick hitters as we try to wrap this up. Memphis continued its hot start, handing Clemson its first loss of the season, beating them 79-77.

Memphis is now 8-2 on the season, with losses coming to undefeated Ole Miss and putting up a stinker against Villanova. David Jones has been a stud for Penny Hardaway’s squad, averaging 20.3 PPG thus far, while Jahvon Quinerly has been a great sidekick, averaging 13.7 PPG so far. This team will also add Nae’Qwan Tomlin, who was dismissed from Kansas State earlier this month. Tomlin is expected to suit up for the Tigers sometime in the next few weeks. Tomlin averaged 10.4 points and 5.9 rebounds per game last year for Kansas State and will be a really quality addition.

For a team that looks to be a good number two in the AAC, they could pass FAU. The Tigers entered the top 25 for the first time this year on Monday, checking in at No. 23.

A team that’s losing games, but not necessarily struggling right now, is Alabama. The Tide have now lost four of their last six to drop to 6-4 after an 85-82 overtime loss to Creighton on Saturday. Those other three losses have come to Clemson, Ohio State and Purdue. The Tide are going to be fine, but have a huge game coming up against Arizona on Wednesday night. It then faces Eastern Kentucky and Liberty before the start of SEC play. Like mentioned, the Tide will likely be fine, but it is something to monitor over the next few weeks.

Finally, a team that picked up its biggest win of the season on Sunday: Syracuse. The Orange thumped Oregon 83-63 at Sanford Pentagon in South Dakota (why are we still putting games there?) to improve to 8-3 on the season.

In his first season running the program, Adrian Autry’s offense has looked dynamic several times, while the defense has improved. It’s somewhat telling that it got blown out by Virginia in its lone ACC game so far, but the Oregon win is a good one. It did also blow out LSU, which doesn’t say a ton, but it’s a high-major opponent that you beat by 23. It has a tune-up against Niagara on Thursday before getting into the thick of ACC play after Christmas.

Some games to look forward to before Christmas:

• Florida vs Michigan in Charlotte, Tuesday, 7 p.m.
• No. 22 Virginia at No. 23 Memphis, Tuesday, 7 p.m.
• No. 10 Baylor vs No. 21 Duke at MSG, Wednesday, 7 p.m.
• Villanova at No. 12 Creighton, Wednesday, 9 p.m.
• No. 7 Oklahoma vs No. 11 North Carolina in Charlotte, Wednesday, 9 p.m.
• Alabama vs No. 4 Arizona in Phoenix, Wednesday, 11 p.m.
• No. 13 Illinois vs Missouri in St. Louis, Friday, 9 p.m.
• No. 14 Florida Atlantic vs No. 4 Arizona in Las Vegas, Saturday, 3 p.m.
• St. John’s at No. 5 UConn, Saturday, 8 p.m.

By Aidan Joly

The UConn express rolled on in Seattle on Friday night.

If there was ever a chance for a poor performance in the early portions of the season, it was this. A 3,000 mile trip to the west coast to face Gonzaga in a packed arena full of Bulldog fans and a 10 p.m. eastern start time. It seemed like an obvious spot for a stinker.

Instead, it only fueled the Huskies. Behind a star performance from Donovan Clingan, UConn eased its way to a 76-63 win. The dominant win marked the Huskies’ 27th non-conference win in 28 tries dating back to the beginning of last season and improves Dan Hurley’s squad to 10-1 on the season.

UConn never trailed in the game, with Clingan scoring eight points before the first media timeout. Each time Gonzaga went on a mini-run to cut it close, UConn always had an answer. The teams traded scores for a majority of the first half, but an 8-0 UConn run towards the end of the first half gave the Huskies an 11-point advantage at the break.

Gonzaga did get it down to as little as nine early in the second half, but the Huskies never wavered, leading by as many as 18 in the closing minutes of the contest.

It’s not like Gonzaga played poorly, per say. UConn had an answer for everything Mark Few’s squad threw at them. The three-ball wasn’t a big part of the offense early on, until Gonzaga started defending in the paint more. In response, UConn started taking threes and making them. The Huskies finished 7-17 from behind the arc for the game, to Gonzaga’s 2-12.

The aforementioned Clingan was clearly the best player on the court all night, finishing with 21 points on 8-11 from the field, while Cam Spencer was a threat from all areas of the floor, finishing with a total of 15 points, nine of them from behind the three-point line. It was impressive stuff from Clingan, who has been playing through a foot injury all season and finally looked like the player that the Huskies hoped he would be this season.

Anton Watson led the Zags with 20 points.

Perhaps most impressive on the defensive end for UConn is that it took Gonzaga big man Graham Ike completely out of the game. He came in averaging 14.2 points per game, the leading mark on the team, but he was limited to five points on 2-5 from the field. It was just the second time this season he has been limited to under 11 points. Nolan Hickman was limited to single digits (8) for just the second time this season as well.

What else can you say about this UConn team? Last season, it was obviously the most explosive group in the country on offense and looks to be right back towards the top this season. Heading into Saturday’s games, UConn ranks third in KenPom in offensive efficiency, trailing just Alabama and Baylor.

The championship pedigree was there all season last year and it sure looks to be back this season. College basketball has not had a back-to-back national champion since Joakim Noah, Taurean Green, Al Horford and Corey Brewer led Billy Donovan’s Florida Gators to back-to-back titles in 2006 and 2007. Before that, you have to go all the way back to Duke going back-to-back in 1991 and 1992.

Right now, it seems like the only reason to bet against UConn is that the defending national champion tends to not do well in the NCAA tournament the next season. Villanova won two championships in three years in 2016 and 2018, but wedged a round of 32 exit between them in 2017. Butler was in the national title game in back-to-back years in 2010 and 2011, but lost both times. That’s the closest we’ve gotten.

But if there’s a squad out there that can give us a back-to-back champ for the first time in nearly two decades, it’s these Huskies.

By Aidan Joly

Is there real trouble in East Lansing?

Michigan State opened the season at No. 4 in the preseason top 25, an indicator that it was going to be one of the best teams in the country.

That hasn’t even come close to happening. The Spartans opened the season with a 79-76 overtime loss to James Madison, an indicator of things to come for both teams. JMU is one of the last seven undefeated teams in the country at 9-0 and is currently ranked at No. 20 in the country. So looking back, it doesn’t look so awful.

However, the rest of the start for the Spartans has been dreadful. Tom Izzo’s squad is now 4-5 after a pair of losses to Wisconsin and Nebraska to start Big Ten play 0-2 – which now marks the second time in four years that Sparty has started with that mark in league play. It started 0-3 in Big Ten play in 2020-21 and barely snuck into the tournament, where it lost in Dayton in the First Four.

It also has losses to Duke and Arizona, both very forgivable losses, but in theory the Spartans would likely be 7-2 or 8-1 at this point in the season. Instead, it sees itself on the outside of the tournament bubble right now, and may stay there for a bit unless it turns itself around in the next few weeks. It’s definitely understandable to see panic setting in.

It’s fairly easy to tell what the issue is here, too. Michigan State has gotten a complete lack of production from its big men, Mady Sissoko and Carson Cooper. Sissoko has taken a real dip in performance and has averaged just 4.4 points and 5.3 rebounds per game, both so far lower than last year’s stats. Cooper has been worse, averaging 3.2 points and 5.3 rebounds per game. Both are technically higher than last year, but Cooper played very sparingly as a freshman last season.

Neither has looked anywhere close to good on the defensive end, too, and both struggled against Nebraska center Rienk Mast, who scored eight points and grabbed 14 rebounds in Nebraska’s 77-70 win against MSU on Sunday.

A glaring absence has been 6-foot-11 freshman Xavier Booker, who has seen the bulk of his 63 total minutes come against mid-major competition (17 against Southern Indiana, 19 against Alcorn State, 12 against Georgia Southern). He weighs 220 pounds, not much for a guy of his size, so it seems he lacks the needed physicality to play center in the Big Ten.

MSU is also without 6-foot-9 sophomore Jaxon Kohler, who is still recovering from a foot injury.

6-foot-8 Malik Hall may have to be an option at big man as the Spartans might have to go small. On Sunday he played well, scoring 22 points on 6-12 shooting and grabbed six rebounds.

If that happens?

Izzo said that Nick Sanders (son of Barry) and his own son Steven Izzo could both be options moving forward. Sanders is 5-foot-10 and the younger Izzo is 5-foot-8. Both are walk-ons. Neither has ever scored a single point in a Michigan State uniform.

Is it that bad? It’s tough to say how serious Izzo was with that quote.

There is certainly time for Michigan State to turn it around. There’s three months left in the regular season and the Spartans are only nine games in. But it has to pick up fast. As it stands, MSU seems to be on the outside looking in to make the NCAA tournament.

The Spartans have three non-conference games left. It will take on Baylor on Saturday, which is a major opportunity for this group to pick up its first major win of the season. Then, it’s three games against mid-major competition in Oakland, Stony Brook and Indiana State before it gets into the thick of Big Ten competition.

Can it turn things around? Certainly. Will it? We’ll see.

By Aidan Joly

On Saturday, four high-level teams took the floor at Coca-Cola Coliseum in Toronto for the Hall of Fame Classic, college hoops’ return to the city for the first time since 2019.

We saw one of the best games of the season so far, while one other team stayed undefeated in game two. Let’s get into it.

In the first game of the day, No. 4 Purdue fought the whole way and walked away with a 92-86 win over Alabama.

It was one of the best shows of the season so far. Zach Edey was nothing short of phenomenal in his homecoming to his native Toronto, scoring 35 points on 12-20 from the field and was a perfect 11-11 from the free throw line.

One thing that one could really take note of was that Alabama was fouling Edey a lot in the paint, and it wasn’t working. Edey currently leads the country with 10.6 fouls drawn per 40 minutes. Edey makes about 75% of his free throws, but he was perfect from the line on Saturday.

As a note, New Mexico State’s Femi Odukale is second in the country in fouls drawn per 40 minutes at 10.5, but it’s a fairly large drop off after that. Third is UNC Asheville’s Drew Pember at 8.9

Heading down the box score for the Boilermakers, point guard Braden Smith was also terrific, scoring 27 points on 9-20 from the field, including 4-7 from three while he also dished out eight assists. It was a career-high in points for Smith.

It’s about time to have a discussion about Smith not only being one of the best point guards in the Big Ten, but one of the best point guards in the country. The sophomore is blossoming in a huge way in year two, and he should get even better as the season goes on.

One point of impressive resolve from Purdue was defending from the three-point line. Alabama made 13 threes in the first half and held a two-point lead at the break, but the Tide only made six in the second half. The Boilermakers really tightened it up – it seemed a lot of the second half that Purdue would make it close, but struggled to take the lead – Purdue didn’t take the lead in the second half until 11:20 to go and didn’t have it for good until 4:30 to play after an Edey dunk.

You would be remiss to mention the performance by Mark Spears, who put up 35 points for the Tide on 13-25 from the field. 24 of his points came from three. It was a yeoman’s performance from the senior guard, but Purdue was just too much to overcome.

Purdue is now 9-1 on the season. There were some fair questions after the loss to Northwestern last weekend, but it now seems to be back on the right track.

As for Alabama, the Tide are still a very good team that should be back in the top 25 soon despite the fact that it has three losses already. It has a tough two games coming up with Creighton on Saturday followed by Arizona on Dec. 20 – going 1-1 in those games would be an accomplishment – but it should be able to really get going after that. Alabama has probably the most efficient offense in the country. It will be fine.

As for game two, Clemson beat TCU 74-66 in a battle of unbeatens.

The star of the game was Clemson’s Joe Girard, who scored 21 points and really took over the game in the second half, getting the Tigers’ lead up to as many as 16 late in the second half before a late run from TCU.

Ian Schieffelin also had a very efficient game, scoring 14 points on 6-8 from the field, while also grabbing nine rebounds, seven of them on the offensive end, and dished out five assists.

TCU missed some shots early in the game that it definitely should have made and that resulted in the Horned Frogs being put at something of a disadvantage, despite the fact that it only trailed by one at the half. Imagine if it had made a few more shots in the first half, and this game is potentially much different.

Emanuel Miller was solid in his homecoming to Toronto, scoring 16 points despite a 5-15 showing from the field and made 6-8 free throws.

Clemson is now 9-0 on the season and is now one of seven undefeated teams left in the country (Arizona, Houston, Baylor, Oklahoma, James Madison, Ole Miss). Like mentioned last week on here, this is seemingly the best Tigers team in years and will continue to move up the rankings. This should be one of the best teams in ACC play when conference play really gets going (it has played one conference game so far). It has a tough test against Memphis on Saturday, then two tune-up games against Queens and Radford before a conference game against Miami on Jan. 3.

As for TCU, the jury is still out on the Horned Frogs. Jamie Dixon’s squad is 7-1 now, but this was the first real test of the season. It barely escaped Georgetown last weekend and got away on a missed call at the end before a buzzer beater from Miller. TCU still probably projects to finish mid-pack in the Big 12, but the Horned Frogs could surprise in a few weeks.

All in all, some great college hoops north of the border on Saturday.

By Aidan Joly

This weekend was the biggest weekend of the season so far for college football, but college basketball still managed to grab some headlines with some upsets and some other big games.

Here’s what happened over the weekend.

Down goes No. 1

Purdue fell to Northwestern in overtime 92-88 in Evanston, marking the second consecutive season Northwestern has taken down the Boilermakers as the No. 1 team in the country.

Purdue needed a perfect pass from Camden Heide to Zach Edey right at the end of regulation to even get the game to overtime.

Northwestern won the game with the turnover battle. The Wildcats had just three turnovers the entire 45 minutes to Purdue’s 17, four of them coming in OT. You got that right – Purdue had more turnovers in the five-minute extra period than Northwestern did the whole game. Boo Buie was fantastic for Northwestern, putting up 31 points on 10-20 from the field.

For Purdue, the loss is not overly concerning, but it will be something to monitor. The win is a huge one for Northwestern as it kicks off Big Ten play with this win, one that probably moves them up a seed line come March.

Very concerned about Villanova, less about Duke, even less about Kentucky

Three surprising results came on Saturday.

First, Villanova lost to Drexel 57-55. I wrote last week that Villanova had redeemed itself by performing very well in the Bahamas, but they come back to the U.S. and promptly lose to St. Joseph’s and Drexel, finishing in last place in the Big 5 Classic, going 0-3 in that tournament. It also drops Kyle Neptune’s squad to 6-3 on the season and dropped out of the top 25 on Monday.

Villanova simply needs more out of Mark Armstrong, who finished with zero points against Drexel in a total no-show effort. He only had five points against St. Joe’s. A jump out of him was expected, it hasn’t happened so far.

After Villanova finished at .500 even last season, this is a very concerning start to the season. In 43 games as Villanova’s coach, Neptune has six losses to sub-100 KenPom teams. The seat isn’t hot for Neptune yet, but it’s certainly getting warmer.

A team I’m slightly less concerned about, but have some questions about, is Duke. The Blue Devils fell to Georgia Tech on the road 72-68. The loss dropped them to 5-3 and are now 1-2 away from Cameron Indoor Stadium, the other loss coming to Arkansas earlier in the week.

The Blue Devils are now No. 22 in the country. Jeremy Roach and Kyle Filipowski seem to be the only ones showing up in big games, they need a third piece to really do well. Duke’s next two games (home vs Charlotte, home vs Hofstra) should both be relatively easy wins, but the real chance for Duke to redeem itself comes on a neutral floor against Baylor on Dec. 20. That game should be very, very telling. But if they find a way to lose one of the next two, some real alarm bells will go off.

Now, of this group, the team I’m least concerned about is Kentucky. The Wildcats did have an alarming loss to UNC Wilmington on Saturday, falling 80-73. The loss dropped them to 6-2 on the season, but the loss feels like more of a fluke. The other loss came to Kansas, which was not concerning at all.

For Kentucky, it’s a “forget this game happened and move on.”

Kansas beats UConn in great one

As busy of a weekend as it was, it’s easy to forget this game happened all the way back on Friday night.

Kansas picked up a 69-65 win against UConn at Allen Fieldhouse. It was one of those games where Kansas dominated the first seven or so minutes and the final five or so minutes, but otherwise it was all UConn. Tristen Newton was great for the Huskies, scoring 31 points on 10-18 shooting and 6-9 from three. He could really separate himself as one of the best players in the Big East. Kevin McCullar and KJ Adams were both very good for the Jayhawks, scoring 21 and 18 points respectively.

It’s interesting to make this more about the team that lost, but UConn was also without freshman Stephon Castle. Watching the tape, UConn doesn’t need to be ashamed for this loss. All things considered, it played well in a tough environment.

Wisconsin stuns Marquette in Madison

It was a stunner in Madison on Saturday afternoon with Wisconsin beating No. 3 Marquette 75-64. The Badgers took control early, leading by as many as 16 in the first half and not looking back.

Wisconsin is a team with a ton of experience and minutes continuity and it showed against the Golden Eagles. Max Klesmit finished with 21 points, while Steven Crowl had 16 on 5-6 from the field. Wisconsin is coming off a pretty mediocre season and maybe the Badgers are showing some improvement early on. They sit at 6-2 now.

Between this result and Northwestern, maybe just maybe, the gap in the Big Ten between Purdue and everyone else isn’t as large as we thought.

Is Clemson for real?

The Clemson Tigers are 7-0. To find the last time Clemson started a season at that mark, you have to go all the way back to the 2008-09 season, when it started 16-0 under Oliver Purnell.

Clemson went 2-0 this week, knocking off Alabama on the road to end the Crimson Tide’s 19-game home winning streak and then beat Pittsburgh 79-70 on the road to open up ACC play. According to theclemsoninsider, the win against Alabama was just the second time in program history that Clemson knocked off a ranked opponent on the road. That’s impressive stuff.

On Monday, the Tigers debuted in the top 25, checking in at No. 24. This feels like the best Clemson team in years and may shape up to be one of the best teams in the ACC. PJ Hall has been terrific, averaging 21.4 PPG so far this year, while Joe Girard III looks like one of the most underrated transfer portal pickups in the country after he has started the season at 14.7 PPG while shooting 46% from three.

Clemson will take on rival South Carolina on Wednesday before taking on fellow undefeated squad TCU on a neutral floor in Toronto on Saturday.

Officiating blunder

The aforementioned TCU got some help staying undefeated on Saturday. It beat Georgetown 84-83 on a buzzer-beater from Emanuel Miller.

One problem though. Miller very clearly stepped on the out of bounds line with the ball just before the shot, which should have resulted in a turnover and a sure Georgetown win.

It was a toughhhh no-call and it’s not a reviewable play. I’m not sure what the answer is and I’m not advocating for monitor reviews, but this feels like something that should be changed to be reviewable. Does it mean giving coaches challenges? Does it involve making that type of play reviewable? It’s a very slippery slope.

The officials in this sport are already drained, traveling and working a game nearly every day for some of the game’s top officials. All three of the officials worked a game the day before, according to KenPom: Kipp Kissinger and Mike Roberts were both on the Houston-Xavier game in Cincinnati, and Ray Natili worked the UConn-Kansas game. A lot of this is that it can be too much on officials.

For example, let’s take a look at Ron Groover’s absurd schedule, just from the last week-plus:

• Fri, Nov. 24: Arizona St vs Vanderbilt (Las Vegas)
• Sat, Nov. 25: Incarnate Word at UTSA
• Sun, Nov. 26: Wyoming at Texas
• Mon, Nov. 27: Houston Christian at TCU
• Tue, Nov. 28: LSU at Syracuse
• Wed, Nov. 29: Tennessee at North Carolina
• Thu, Nov. 30: Creighton at Oklahoma State
• Fri, Dec. 1: George Washington at South Carolina
• Sat, Dec 2: day off
• Sun, Dec. 3: Louisville at Virginia Tech

College basketball does have an officiating problem and part of the problem it seems is that referees are on the road daily and are surely exhausted, even by this point in the year. Scenarios like that shouldn’t happen. But unfortunately, they do.