AJ Hoops

By Aidan Joly

With Sunday night’s win against Stanford, the Arizona State Sun Devils are 2-0 in Pac-12 play for the first time since the 2012-13 campaign.

With the league just having finished up its opening weekend of conference play and with no more conference games to be played until much later in the month, the Sun Devils sit in a four-way tie at the top of the 12-team league with UCLA, Utah and USC. (It’s worth noting that Arizona fell victim to an upset from Utah on Thursday.)

Overall, it now sits at 8-1, which included the conference wins against Colorado and Stanford as well as a couple good non-conference wins, including an 87-62 thumping of Michigan on a neutral court last month. Last year, Bobby Hurley’s squad didn’t score its eighth win of the season until February 12 en route to a 14-17 season overall. This is the first 2-0 league start for the Sun Devils in the Hurley era.

As this piece was being written, the December 5 AP Poll was released, with Arizona State receiving 20 points. This effectively puts it at No. 30 in the country.

Hurley and the Sun Devils have done this by utilizing the talent in the transfer portal. Hurley was able to grab Frankie Collins, a former Michigan guard who played sparingly in his freshman year in Ann Arbor and has transformed him into the team’s leading scorer at 12.6 points per game. The Cambridge brothers, Devan and Desmond, have become formidable players in their first years at ASU. Devan, who spent three years at Auburn and didn’t have much of a role, has scored at least 12 points in each of the Sun Devils’ past four games. Desmond, a Nevada grad transfer, has seen his stats dip a bit compared to last year, but is still a solid role player.

Desmond Cambridge’s teammate at Nevada, seven-footer Warren Washington, has joined him to the tune of a team-leading seven rebounds per game and just under eight points per game.

A key returner, DJ Horne, has also played well, albeit a little inconsistent. The Sun Devils have had this level of success without the services of Marcus Bagley, who has not played since the second game of the season after being benched after having a run-in with Hurley and then later suspended for a social media post about the incident, which was a bit of a mess last week. Bagley is probably unlikely to play another game in a Sun Devils uniform, but if they get him back by some stroke, that just adds to what they can do.

Now to talk about the Sun Devils’ chances at making the NCAA tournament. In the Pac-12, Arizona and UCLA are the two locks right now. Arizona is likely to be in the conversation for a 1 seed. USC and Oregon are in the “should be in” category right now. That probably leaves room for one more, maybe two, Pac-12 teams.

Will Arizona State be one of those one or two teams? Right now, it sits fairly firmly on the bubble. It has a couple good nonconference tests coming up, a true road game against SMU on Wednesday and a neutral site game against Creighton on December 12. A true road game against potential fellow bubble team San Francisco on December 21 looms as well.

The Sun Devils need to just rack up wins in games they should win, and a first NCAA tournament trip since 2019 may be in the cards.

By Aidan Joly

On Tuesday, unranked Marquette upset No. 6 Baylor.

It wasn’t just a run-of-the-mill upset that came down the final few possessions, the Golden Eagles put a beatdown on the Bears, beating them 96-70, a 26-point rout.

It was a stunning result and one of the larger upsets of the season, the top teams in the country losing to teams seen as inferior has become very commonplace in the first few weeks of the season.

Since the season began on November 7, 13 ranked teams have lost to unranked teams and there wasn’t any until Temple beat then-No. 16 Villanova.

Tuesday’s win was the third time this season we saw a team ranked in the top six in the country fall to an unranked team; Michigan State beat No. 4 Kentucky on November 15 and Iowa State took down No. 1 North Carolina in Portland last Friday.

A lot of the top teams in college basketball feel very vulnerable – the UNC loss seemed to have been a long time coming, even if it was just the Tar Heels’ sixth game of the season, it had not looked good. Two days later, it lost a 4OT thriller to No. 18 Alabama, which dropped them all the way to No. 18 when the latest AP poll dropped on Monday.

Gonzaga, who came into the season at No. 2 in the country, has suffered two blowout losses this season at the hands of Texas and Purdue. It has a nice 16-point win over Kentucky, but the Bulldogs are 1-2 against ranked opponents so far this season before a neutral site game against Baylor on Friday.

Duke has a pair of losses, one of them a 19-point loss to Purdue. Heck, three of the four teams that played in the Champions Classic all have multiple losses.

This has paid dividends for programs such as Houston, who now sits at No. 1 in the country for the first time since the Phi Slama Jama days in this week’s poll. Texas is in the top two in the country for the first time since 2010. Virginia is off to a hot start with wins against Baylor and Illinois and sits at No. 3 in the country. UConn is 8-0 and No. 8 in the nation. That same Purdue group is a top-five team and hasn’t lost a game yet.

We’ve heard for years now that the talent gap in college basketball is closing more and more by the year. So far this year, we are seeing that.

This all being said, it turned out that a lot of the teams ranked at the top of the polls early in the season turned out to more vulnerable than we thought. It’s showing and other programs are taking advantage.

By Aidan Joly

One of the best tournaments of the early season finished up Sunday night in Portland. 16 teams in two brackets, the Phil Knight Legacy and the Phil Knight Invitational. Here are some takeaways from the games that were played throughout the week.

North Carolina exposed

The preseason No. 1 team hadn’t impressed before the tournament, so it seemed like almost a definite that the Tar Heels would lose a game in Portland. It lost two, a 70-65 loss to Iowa State on Friday and then lost a 103-101 quadruple overtime game to No. 18 Alabama on Sunday. Losing to Alabama is fine, but the Tar Heels finally got beat against TJ Otzelberger’s Cyclones. The Cyclones did it thanks to a magical night from Caleb Grill, who finished with 31 points on 11-15 shooting and 7-11 from three. The offense of UNC seems fine, it’s the defense that needs work. It will be fine in the ACC, but is not close to the best team in the country. Right now, it sits at #21 in KenPom.

Duke not getting necessary production

Duke had the best recruiting class this year, getting three of the top four prospects via 247 Sports in Dariq Whitehead, Dereck Lively and Kyle Filipowski, and not to mention Mark Mitchell at #20 and Tyrese Proctor at #27. In Portland, Duke went 2-1, beating Oregon State by just three points and Xavier by seven, before a blowout 75-56 loss to Purdue in the Legacy bracket final. Filipowski has been great and Mitchell and Proctor are both serviceable, but Whitehead and Lively have been disappointing and have already seen their minutes drop. To be a national title contender with freshman, you have to have them perform. So far, that is not happening.

Villanova looks bad

Is the sky falling already? The Wildcats went 0-3 in Portland with losses to Iowa State, Portland and an Oregon team that had just six scholarship players available. That drops them to 2-5 on the season and 0-5 against top 200 KenPom teams. Shorthanded due to injuries or not, new coach or not, this is a jarring turn. The Wildcats are out of good non-conference opportunities too. Not saying Nova is done, but this team is in a bad place right now.

Shantay Legens stock is up

Having taken over a program that is traditionally in the basement of the WCC, Shantay Legens had the Portland program at 19 wins last year in his first season at the helm and went 7-7 in conference play. This week, one of the two host schools of this tournament grabbed a win against the aforementioned Villanova and kept it close in its two other games, hanging around for about 39 minutes against UNC before losing by eight. Then, it only lost by one to Michigan State on Sunday, 78-77. The WCC is always a four-dog race, but the Pilots could make themselves known as the “best of the rest” in that league. Legens, still only 41, is a rising star in coaching.

UConn is legit

After going 3-0 in Portland and winning the Invitational bracket to improve its record to 8-0, an argument can be made for UConn to be a top 15 team in the country. It rolled over Oregon 83-59 on Thursday before beating Alabama 82-67 on Friday night before putting a final 71-53 beatdown on Iowa State on Sunday. Adama Sanogo has taken that jump to be a star, East Carolina transfer Tristen Newton has been a fantastic addition, sophomore Jordan Hawkins has made a jump in year two and Alex Karaban is an impact freshman. The Huskies have a ton of good role players too. UConn should be the new favorite to win the Big East at this point.

Iowa State’s big week

The Cyclones had a big week, going 2-1 in the bracket and are now 5-1 on the season, including the program’s first win against a No. 1 team since 2016 and just the second since 1957. The aforementioned Grill had one of the best performances from any player on any team in recent memory against UNC, meanwhile a pair of St. Bonaventure transfers in Jaren Holmes and Osun Osunniyi have been great additions. Otzelberger, in his second year in Ames, has this program going in the right direction.

Purdue’s massive weekend, Edey is a star

Purdue was the other team that went 3-0 in Portland and won the legacy bracket with wins over West Virginia, Gonzaga and Duke. The Boilermakers are now 6-0 on the season. However, it was 7-4 center Zach Edey who has taken centerstage, having scored 24, 23 and 21 points in the three wins and has averaged 21.7 points and 12 rebounds per game so far. Matt Painter had limited his minutes through his first two years, but he now averaged almost 30 per game after never averaging more than 20 and it’s paying dividends.

By Aidan Joly

As it is every year, we have potential Cinderellas to watch and so far this year has been no different. Here are eight mid-major teams to watch at this point in the season.

Towson

This is a program that had a 21 win improvement from the 2020-21 season to the 2021-22 season, going from four wins to 25 wins. The season ended with a trip to the CAA semifinals and a trip to the NIT. Now, the Tigers are off to a 5-0 start behind 18.4 points per game from Nicholas Timberlake and 13 per game from Charles Thompson. The CAA has multiple teams capable of making runs and Towson is one of them.

Charleston

Another CAA team. Traditionally one of the better mid-major programs in that part of the country, Pat Kelsey’s Cougars emphasized their strong start by winning the Charleston Classic, a tournament that the program hosts, for the first time ever since the tournament began in 2008. To do it, it beat Davidson, Colorado State and then Virginia Tech in the championship game. The Cougars also have win over Richmond. It is 4-1 with the one loss coming to No. 1 North Carolina, but they led by seven at the half and trailed by single digits in the final five minutes. This is another team to keep an eye on. Towson and Charleston will play each other for the first time this season on New Year’s Eve. Buckle up.

UAB

A team out of the Conference USA and led by former Ole Miss head coach Andy Kennedy, the Blazers are off to a strong 4-1 start and are ranked No. 42 in the country on KenPom while this column was being written. On Tuesday, it finished off winning its bracket of the Sunshine Slam Classic in Daytona, Fla., beating South Florida by 15 and Georgia by 14 to do it. Jordan Walker put up 30 points in the tournament’s title game on Tuesday to up his point per game average to 24.6, good for third in the country. It’s one loss comes to Toledo, who we’ll talk about next.

Toledo

The Rockets are 4-2 right now, but still remain the top dog in the MAC before conference play begins. It won a game against the aforementioned UAB and also has wins against Valparaiso, Oakland the Northern Kentucky. The Rockets have three 15+ point scorers in Rayj Dennis (20.2), JT Shmuatw (19.8) and Setric Millner Jr. (15.0). This is a team that could give fits to other teams throughout the season and come March.

Louisiana

The Ragin’ Cajuns are off to a 5-0 start to the season and turned some heads with a 76-72 overtime win against SMU on Tuesday night. It also has wins against Harvard, East Tennessee State and Louisiana Tech. Big man Jordan Brown has been fantastic, averaging 20.2 points per game on a 58.6% shooting clip and also grabs 7.2 rebounds per game. The Sun Belt, which now boasts 14 teams, is very deep. Louisiana is still relatively low in KenPom (No. 124), than some other teams, but don’t be surprised if they move right on up. It is one of two remaining undefeated teams in the league.

James Madison

Talking about a second team in the Sun Belt, it’s not the other remaining undefeated team, but 4-1 James Madison is legit. It turned heads on the first day of the season by beating Division III Valley Forge 123-38, but backed it up by scoring 95 or more points in each of its next three games before a loss to No. 1 North Carolina. Takal Molson and Vado Morse each score 14.6 points per game. It is set to play in the Savannah Invitational this weekend with games against NAIA College of Coastal Georgia on Friday, but it gets tougher with games against South Dakota State and Valparaiso on Saturday and Sunday.

Drake

The Bulldogs and head coach Darian DeVries have been here before. It won a game in the 2021 NCAA tournament as one of the last four teams in. It then had a down year by program standards last year, but still made it to the CBI, winning a total of 25 games and went 13-5 in Missouri Valley league play. Now, the Bulldogs are off to a 5-0 start and are ranked at No. 70 in KenPom. It has wins against the likes of Wofford, Buffalo and Wyoming before league play, one that no longer has Loyola Chicago. This seems like Drake’s league to lose.

Sam Houston State

One of two undefeated teams remaining in a 14-team WAC, the Bearkats are off to a 5-0 start that includes a pair of true road wins against two Power 6 programs in Oklahoma and Wyoming. It hangs the hat on the defense, having not allowed more than 55 points in a single game this season. As this is written, it holds a 20-point lead against South Dakota at the Fort Myers Tip-Off. The WAC is a tough-as-nails league, but the Bearkats will remain a threat all season into March.

By Aidan Joly

It’s been one of the biggest stories of the college basketball season so far: the 0-4 start for the Florida State Seminoles.

Following its loss to Florida on Friday night at home, which in and of itself was a huge collapse, the program is 0-4 for the first time since 1959 and are just the fourth ACC team to ever start a season 0-4, according to Elias Sports Bureau.

It goes without saying that this is a historically bad start for one of the most consistently good programs in the country for the past five yeas or so.

Friday night’s game against Florida perfectly encapsulated that. The Seminoles led by as many as 19 late in the first half and held a 17-point advantage at the break, only to be outscored by the Gators by 26 in the second half and lose 76-67.

This came after an 83-74 loss against Stetson on opening night on November 7, a 68-54 loss at the hands of UCF on November 11 and a 79-72 loss to Troy on November 14. Three of these four losses came at home too, the UCF loss being the lone road game.

The Seminoles missed the NCAA tournament this past March for the first time since 2016 – due to some injuries down the stretch, it struggled.

It was never going to be a top season for the Seminoles after Malik Osborne and Anthony Polite opting to not use their final year of eligibility and prized grad transfer Jaylan Gainey done for the season. It lost additional depth for the beginning of the season with an injury redshirt for top recruit De’Ante Green as well as a suspension for Baba Miller.

However, it wasn’t supposed to be this bad, this early.

The Seminoles were picked fifth in the ACC preseason poll in a down ACC this year. It was picked there due to some talent still there with Caleb Mills and Jalen Warney seen as experienced ball-handlers, Matthew Cleveland expected to emerge to be an NBA prospect, Cam’Ron Fletcher seen as an effective forward and some promise in 7-4 senior Naheem McLeod.

UCF transfer Darin Green Jr. has shown some promise, but of that group, the only one not underperforming is Mills, who has averaged 13.5 points per game over the first four.

Warney hasn’t scored more than nine points in any game this season. Cleveland is struggling. While Fletcher’s scoring average has increased, his shooting percentage has taken a 10-point dip so far. Meanwhile, McLeod isn’t seeing too many minutes.

It’s been an ugly start for FSU, to say the least here. The ACC is down as a whole and almost thankfully for them, Louisville is also off to an 0-3 start. Conference doormat Boston College also has a pair of inexplicable losses to Maine and Tarleton State.

The point here is that the Seminoles need to use the rest of nonconference play to get right, or else they are at risk of getting eaten alive in the ACC. It faces Mercer on Monday night, which maybe it can use to beat up on before the ESPN Events Invitational, where play begins on Thursday.

It will need to win some games, and quickly, before this start gets even worse.

By Aidan Joly

On Monday, the Maui Invitational returns to Hawaii for the first time since 2019, having been held in North Carolina in 2020 and Las Vegas in 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

This year, eight teams will descend on the Lahaina Civic Center in one of the strongest fields the tournament has seen in years.

Here’s a look at each of those teams.

Arizona

A team that should spent the majority of the season within the top 15 in the country, the tournament will be the Wildcats’ first test of the season after starting 3-0 in buy games. Lithuanian big man Azuolas Tubelis has averaged 20 points and 7.7 rebounds per game so far, while Oumar Ballo has taken a big step so far in his second year with the program, 17 points and 9.3 rebounds per game. Pelle Larsson and Kerr Kriisa have each done well too. This is a loaded squad that could win this tournament.

Arkansas

Another top 10-15 team in the country in the Razorbacks. The top two players on this team are both transfers in Ricky Council IV, who came in from Wichita State, as well as Missouri transfer Trevon Brazile. Junior Devo Davis, who took steps at the end of last season, has taken even more steps through Arkansas’ 3-0 start. Arkansas will see battles this week.

Cincinnati

Cincinnati is 3-1 on the season and will be coming into the tournament coming off a 13-point loss to Northern Kentucky, a big early-season blemish. One player to watch on the Bearcats is David DeJulius, who has scored 18.3 points a game so far this season. It also boasts former Virginia Tech and Memphis stalwart Landers Nolley II, who will look to get back into the limelight in Maui.

Creighton

Another great team that lands in the top 10-15 teams in the country. The Bluejays will see their first big battles of the season after starting 4-0 with no close games. It landed what was thought to be the best player on the transfer market this summer in former South Dakota State Jackrabbit Baylor Scheierman, but he hasn’t been the player they’ve wanted him to be thus far. His minutes are down and he averages 10.5 points per game. However, Ryan Kalkbrenner has picked up the slack.

Louisville

Of course, a household program, but this year couldn’t have gotten off to a worse start in year one under Kenny Payne. The Cardinals are 0-3 with losses to Bellarmine, Wright State and Appalachian State and they’ve all been by one point. The Wright State loss was on a buzzer-beater. The Cardinals need to show some life in this tournament, or this could be a long year for the program.

Ohio State

It’s tough to peg where the Buckeyes are at for this season. They were picked in the top half of the Big Ten. It has struggled defensively the past few years, but have made roster adjustments to shore up and it has shown, only allowing 50.7 points per game to start 3-0. A pair of freshman Ben Sensabaugh (17 PPG) and Roddy Gayle (8 PPG) have both been good, while Justice Sueing has looked good after missing all but two games last year due to injuries. Some good litmus test games are on the way this week.

San Diego State

Simply put, the Aztecs are a real sleeper team to win this tournament. A top 20 team in the country that has gotten off to a 3-0 start, that includes a pair of nice wins against BYU and Stanford, two teams who will both be in the tournament conversation. Brian Dutcher’s squad is always stout defensively and this year is no difference. Jaedon LeDee and Darrion Trammell, while Nathan Mensah is a great defensive player. This seems like a team that could rattle off a quick three wins to win this tournament (they have the shortest trip, too).

Texas Tech

The Red Raiders are another team that is off to a 3-0 start, two of them blowout wins. Another program and head coach in Mark Adams that is known for its defense, look for Texas Tech to be another team that does that. Texas Tech certainly isn’t a favorite to win this tournament, but don’t be surprised if they can win a game or two. They’ll open up against Creighton.

Tournament schedule (all times EST)

Monday:

Game 1: Texas Tech vs Creighton, 2:30 p.m.

Game 2: Louisville vs Arkansas, 5 p.m.

Game 3: Ohio State vs San Diego State, 9 p.m.

Game 4: Cincinnati vs Arizona, 11:30 p.m.

Tuesday:

Game 5: Game 1 loser vs Game 2 loser, 2:30 p.m.

Game 6: Game 3 loser vs Game 4 loser, 5 p.m.

Game 7: Game 1 winner vs Game 2 winner, 8 p.m.

Game 8: Game 3 winner vs Game 4 winner, 10:30 p.m.

Wednesday:

Game 9 (5th place game): Game 5 winner vs Game 6 winner, 2:30 p.m.

Game 10 (Championship game): Game 7 winner vs Game 8 winner, 5 p.m.

Game 11 (7th place game): Game 5 loser vs Game 6 loser, 7:30 p.m.

Game 12 (3rd place game): Game 7 loser vs Game 8 loser, 10 p.m.

By Aidan Joly

The first major event of the college basketball season was a great one, with Michigan State beating No. 4 Kentucky 86-77 in double overtime, followed by No. 6 Kansas grinding out a 69-64 win against No. 7 Duke at Gainbridge Fieldhouse in Indianapolis.

Lots happened, let’s dive right into it.

A big part of why Michigan State willed themselves to a win on Tuesday night was the playcalling of Tom Izzo.

The Spartans were ready for this game, in part due to the loss to Gonzaga last Friday. Trailing 62-60 at the end of regulation, Izzo called for Malik Hall and the play was executed perfectly, with Hall getting past Oscar Tshiebwe and dunking it to tie the game with 3.7 seconds left.

It happened again at the end of the first overtime. Hall was able to break free on the final play of the first extra stanza and dunked again to tie it at 71 with 1.7 seconds to go. In the second overtime, with Tshiebwe having fouled out, a major loss for the Wildcats, the Spartans scored 15 points in the second overtime to earn the win.

These clutch plays will be what Michigan State needs all year. Mady Sissoko had two big plays during the second overtime – the junior has been a revelation for the Spartans the past two games after barely seeing any action his first two years.

Joey Hauser bounced back from a bad game against Gonzaga to score 23 points on 8-16 shooting and grabbed eight rebounds. Hall had 20 points himself.

In what will undoubtedly be a tough Big Ten this season, Michigan State will have to continue to find ways to win games. It did that on Tuesday. In addition, this team has challenged itself in the nonconference, with Gonzaga, this game, a date with Villanova on Friday, playing in the Phil Knight Invitational next week (its first game will be against Alabama on Thanksgiving) and a road game against Notre Dame on November 30.

Lots of challenges and lots of opportunities to get better before league play starts.

In the second game of the night, it was the steadying influence of Jalen Wilson and Dajaun Harris, while freshman Gradey Dick introduced himself to the college basketball world with big plays down the stretch.

After being nearly invisible for nearly the entire second half, Dick hit a three with 2:21 to go to give the Jayhawks a 61-59 lead. After Duke’s Jeremy Roach answered with a three of his own, Dick had an alley-oop with 1:40 to go to give Kansas a 63-62 lead it would never relinquish, finishing the game on a 15-5 run.

Despite Dick being just a freshman, he showed the poise of an upperclassmen throughout the night and didn’t let a mistake here or there get to him, neither did Duke having the lead for the majority of the second half. This is a guy who will be great for this team all year.

Meanwhile, Wilson scored a career-high 25 points and tacked on 11 rebounds. However, it was Harris who provided what the Jayhawks needed. He had championship-level point guard play, running the offense smoothly and despite only having six points, was a major factor. He did dish out 10 assists.

What’s even more impressive is that the Jayhawks did this without head coach Bill Self and top assistant Kurtis Townsend, who are serving their four-game suspensions due to the 2017 infractions scandal. Assistant Norm Roberts ran the team on Tuesday.

The Jayhawks played hard and never got rattled, even when the execution wasn’t all there. Sometimes, winning ugly is what you need to do.

All four of these teams will be making noise and deep NCAA tournament runs come March. As it is every year for the unofficial kickoff of the season, it was fun to see these four programs come together for a great night of hoops.

By Aidan Joly

One of the more popular college basketball early season events returns this week.

The annual series of games between the Big Ten and the Big East gets going on Monday night. Eight games are set to be held over the next five days with Friday’s games, Indiana at Xavier and Villanova at Michigan State, being the headliners of the slate.

Here’s a preview of each of the eight games this week.

DePaul at Minnesota, Monday, 7 p.m.

Not much to get excited about. Neither of these teams are expected to make noise in their respective leagues, but they will kick off the event. Both teams come in at 2-0 with DePaul beating Loyola (Md.) and Western Illnois, with Minnesota beating Western Michigan and St. Francis (NY). Former Oklahoma star Umoja Gibson has averaged 18 points a game over the first two for DePaul and Dawson Garcia is Minnesota’s leading scorer so far at 17 a game.

Winner prediction: DePaul

Butler at Penn State, Monday, 8:30 p.m.

Both of these teams should be in the bottom half of their leagues too. Butler has only played once this season, a 89-53 win against New Orleans on opening night, while Penn State is 2-0 with wins over Winthrop and that same Loyola team. Penn State has a pretty balanced attack though, which shouldn’t be a bad watch.

Winner prediction: Penn State

Northwestern at Georgetown, Tuesday, 6:30 p.m.

Lol. Neither of these teams will be any good, but they’re both 2-0 after Northwestern beat Chicago State and Northern Illinois and Georgetown beat Coppin State and Green Bay. Qudus Wahab is a Hoya again? That’s all I got here.

Winner prediction: Northwestern

Marquette at Purdue, Tuesday, 8:30 p.m.

If Marquette plays up to the opponent, this could be a sneaky good game. Marquette only beat Radford by four though, so it might be a long year for Shaka Smart’s squad. Nobody on that roster really impresses me, but I’m willing to hear them out. Zach Edey is always a fun watch for the Boilermakers on what’s a generally young Purdue team this year.

Winner prediction: Purdue

Iowa at Seton Hall, Wednesday, 7:30 p.m.

I’m excited for this one. Seton Hall, under Shaheen Holloway, has been terrific on the defensive side of the ball for two games so far, wins over Monmouth and Holloway’s former school in St. Peter’s. It will be interesting to see how that defense matches up against Hawkeye star Kris Murray, who has put up 14 and 22 points in each game so far. Granted, it was against Bethune-Cookman and North Carolina A&T, but this game represents a great test for both teams.

Winner prediction: Iowa

Nebraska at St. John’s, Thursday, 6:30 p.m.

Back to games that aren’t really anything to get excited about. Fred Hoiberg has seemingly been on the verge of getting canned in Lincoln for a couple years now and although rare, a midseason firing wouldn’t be too much of a shocker. However, the Cornhuskers have taken care of business through the first two with wins against Maine and Nebraska-Omaha. David Jones has been good for St. John’s thus far in the Johnnies’ 2-0 start, which will presumably be 3-0 by Thursday.

Winner prediction: St. John’s

Indiana at Xavier, Friday, 6 p.m.

No. 13 Indiana with a tough road test against the Musketeers. Trayce Jackson-Davis is looking to transform into a household name this season and has put up 15 and 21 points in the Hoosiers’ first two games this season. For Xavier, Zach Freemantle and Jack Nunge are both back for Sean Miller’s first year at the helm in Cincinnati. Both of these teams are off to 2-0 starts and Xavier will presumably by 3-0 by this time. Fantastic early season game here.

Winner prediction: Indiana

Villanova at Michigan State, Friday, 8 p.m.

Both of these teams have an early-season loss to their names, with Villanova falling in a road game at Temple and the Spartans losing to No. 2 Gonzaga, both on Friday. It was an excusable loss for Michigan State obviously. Meanwhile, Villanova seems to be still working out the kinks under Kyle Neptune. Michigan State will see Kentucky in the Champions’ Classic on Tuesday before this one, having loaded up in nonconference. The Wildcats will have a tune-up game against Delaware State on Tuesday.

Winner prediction: Michigan State

By Aidan Joly

On Friday, we saw a pair of college basketball games played at a pair of distinctly unique venues.

First, No. 2 Gonzaga beat Michigan 64-63 on the deck of the USS Abraham Lincoln, an active Naval aircraft carrier in San Diego. It wasn’t the first time a college basketball game was played on the deck of a Naval ship, but it was the first in about a decade.

It was a cool event, that featured the start of the second half being delayed so the colors could be retired, which was moving to watch.

The second game featured Wisconsin beat Stanford 60-50 at American Family Field, home of MLB’s Milwaukee Brewers. It was undoubtedly a bizarre visual, but that was cool too.

We need more of this in college basketball. We need more unique venues like this.

MLB and the NHL have been doing it well for the past handful of years. You look at MLB’s Field of Dreams game where they drop a baseball field in the middle of an Iowa cornfield. The NHL played a pair of games in the middle of the forest in Lake Tahoe a few years ago. They are cool, made-for-TV events that will capture the eyes of the casual fan.

A lot of leagues now do international games in order to expand their reach to fans outside of the U.S.. College basketball should be doing this too. We have an international game every once in a while, but why not make it a regular occurrence? NBA has done it, college should be able to too. Basketball is becoming so much of a global game, especially so in the past decade, so why not expose international fans to the college game too?

Some unique venues are to be had in the United States too. I’d love to see a game at New York City’s historic Rucker Park, although an NBA game there might happen first. I did think it might be tough with weather, but on the other hand, the NHL was able to find a way to do outdoor games in Dallas and Los Angeles. I’m sure there’s technology to keep court level at a comfortable temperature. The Basketball Tournament played a section of games at Rucker Park this past summer and it was awesome to watch.

We could play games at school’s football stadiums. Imagine a basketball game being played with 100,000 people in some cases, and doing it outside? It would be awesome.

We could do an event similar to the one in Milwaukee on Friday night and make it into a basketball/hockey doubleheader, maybe even with the same two schools playing, or at least one of them. Put one in the infield and one in the outfield and there you go. I think it’s great way to attract alumni bases, students and casual fans that might just go for one of the games and stay for the other because why not. This is something that could attract new fans.

Play games at the hundreds of legendary high school gyms across the country to pay tribute the grassroots of the game. Bryant and Manhattan were supposed to play a game at NYC’s historic Gauchos Gym this season, but plans for that seemed to fizzle out. There’s gyms all across the country, let’s utilize them.

One outside the box idea I had is playing games at the Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield, Mass. If you want to get really crazy, play it on the court inside the hall. You can’t tell me that wouldn’t be cool.

The gist of the point I’m trying to make is, less games at neutral sites where there isn’t much of a crowd because neither of the teams interest the locals. Let’s get some games at venues that will get people talking and interested in the game.

By Aidan Joly

Having watched Shaheen Holloway’s St. Peter’s teams on a semi-regular basis the past few years, it was easy to tell that Holloway’s emphasis as a coach was having his teams clamping down on defense.

When he was hired to be the head coach at Seton Hall after guiding the Peacocks to the Elite Eight, it was fair to wonder if that style would translate to the Big East.

It’s only one game against a mid-major opponent, but that style certainly translated in Wednesday’s opener for the Pirates, ending in a blowout 79-52 win against a familiar opponent in Monmouth.

After kind of a slow start, the Seton Hall defense really clamped down on Monmouth, forcing turnovers and turning that into instant offense. Seton Hall forced 23 Monmouth turnovers and scored 26 points off of them.

In addition to that, Monmouth scored just 17 points in the first half, allowing the Pirates to jump out to a 19-point lead at the break. The second half was a bit closer with Monmouth scoring 35 points, but some of those points came in garbage time.

Taking a look at the shooting numbers, Monmouth shot a measly 29.8% from the field, 17-57 and were 2-20 from behind the three point arc. Yes, it’s a very young Monmouth team that lost a lot of players to graduation and the Hawks were playing in their opener as well, but those numbers are staggeringly low. It’s worth noting that 16 of Monmouth’s points came from the free throw line as well.

Just to touch on some specific players, the freshman duo of Tae Davis and Jaquan Sanders both played well, Davis scoring 11 points on 5-7 shooting while grabbing eight rebounds and dishing out five assists, while Sanders hit a pair of triples. It has been a while since Seton Hall has had a pair of impact freshman, or even just a single impact freshman – you could probably go with Myles Powell’s 10.7 points per game in the 2016-17 season for that answer – and it is possible that Davis and Sanders could provide that to them and be staples on this team for years to come.

This was only game one for Seton Hall too and there were even times during the game where the unit looked discombobulated. It’s a group still learning to play together and nonetheless still put up a very strong performance.

As always, the Big East is deep this year, especially in the middle of the pack. However, if things continue to progress in a solid manner, especially with some good non-conference tests in Iowa, Memphis, Kansas and Rutgers still to go, Seton Hall should be expected to be in the top half of that league.