One Team From Each Conference That Has Stood Out So Far in Conference Play

Big 12 – Kansas

It has been an absolutely wild stretch of College Basketball, with four of the top five ranked teams in the AP Poll recently falling to unranked opponents. This is the first time we have ever seen before, and it is only a reminder that anything can happen in this absolute crazy sport. One of those teams that went down was #2 ranked Kansas against Central Florida. Although this was a unique spot considering it was the first ever Big 12 Conference home game for UCF, this is not a game the Jayhawks should lose. Just a few days earlier Central Florida fell to Kansas State in blowout fashion 77-52. After leading by eight points at the half, Kansas was outscored 36-23 in the final 20 minutes and even cost themselves at the Free Throw Line, shooting 6-11.

This Kansas team is still 13-2 and should be right there at the top of the Big 12 when it’s all set and done. However, is this a vintage Kansas team that you should have Final 4 or bust expectations for? My answer would be no, as the Jayhawks have shown signs of vulnerability since the start of the season. The bottom line is, outside the top four guys of Hunter Dickinson, Kevin McCullar, DaJuan Harris and KJ Adams, there aren’t many guys you will be able to trust. These four players combined for 43 of the 60 Jayhawks points on Wednesday night in the loss. Bill Self flat out needs more from guys like Elmarko Jackson, Johnny Furphy and Nick Timberlake, if the Jayhawks want to get things turned around. They haven’t shown any signs yet they are capable of doing that. Kansas was also fortunate to get out of Saturday’s game against TCU, due to some questionable calls going in their favor down the stretch.

This weekend’s game against an Oklahoma team ranked in the Top 10, feels like a litmus test game for the Jayhawks and if they can really get back to where they want to be. There aren’t many programs in the country that could be 13-2 and ranked in the Top 5, that you would have this much panic for. However, since it is Bill Self and Kansas, anything short of competing for Championships is not good enough. Losing to Central Florida should be a wakeup call, that this Kansas team just isn’t on par with the teams that had won a combined 59 games in the last two seasons.

ACC – Clemson

After being one the first teams on the wrong end of the NCAA Tournament cut line a season ago, this was going to be a big season for Brad Brownell and the Tigers. Clemson returned six of their top nine leading scorers from last season’s team that won 23 games and went 14-6 in the ACC. Early on it looked like Clemson being selected fifth in the Preseason ACC Poll was too low. The Tigers won 11 of their first 12 games, including a signature road victory at

Alabama in the ACC / SEC Challenge. In addition, PJ Hall has been playing like the clear-cut ACC Player of the Year, with 29 points against Alcorn State and 27 points against UAB. In the last three games however, things have gone in the opposite direction. In the last seven days, Clemson has dropped games to Miami, North Carolina and Virginia Tech. It’s not like any of these games are bad losses per say, but at one point earlier this season, it looked like this could be the best Clemson team of the Brad Brownell era.

This is Brownell’s 14th season on the job, and one constant during that stretch is inconsistency. Playing at Cassell Coliseum is never an easy task for the visiting team, however coming off two straight disappointing losses, I expected a little more from this Clemson team. While just a week ago Clemson would have been labeled as one of the favorites to win the ACC, other teams like North Carolina, Duke and Wake Forest are just playing much better basketball right now.

One issue I have with Clemson at the moment, is the ball seems to be in Joe Girard’s hand’s way too often. Chase Hunter is a veteran player that has been in the program for five seasons now. He averaged 4.5 assists per game last season, but is playing much more off the ball recently which has cost Clemson. Girard is a score first player that can get a little too shot happy at times, that I think would be better off the ball.

Clemson has the talent to turn things around and will have a very manageable upcoming stretch, with home games against Boston College and Georgia Tech, then going to Florida State. That is before their biggest test of the season at Duke on January 24th.

Pac-12 – UCLA

Mick Cronin’s Bruins entered this season in a rather difficult spot, fresh off their third straight Sweet-16, but losing each of their top five leading scorers from last season. While that production was always going to be difficult to replace, Cronin took a little bit of a different approach, building this current version of the Bruins around some of the best international recruits out there. Despite UCLA being picked third in the Pac-12 Preseason Poll and most expecting this team to at a minimum get back to the big dance, saying this season has been a failure so far is an understatement. After opening up conference play with a road victory at Oregon State, UCLA has lost their last three consecutive games and six of their last seven, going back to non-conference play. That doesn’t even include an embarrassing home loss to Cal-State Northridge in December.

Dating back to when Cronin was hired prior to the start of the 2019-2020 season, I always had some questions about how his rugged coaching style would translate at a place known for getting some of the top recruits out of High School in the country. Mick’s teams at Cincinnati weren’t always the most talented, but he was always able to build a team that played the style of basketball he wanted and was always able to get the most out of them. While the first three years at UCLA couldn’t have gone better then they did, it is important to remember those were mostly with players Steve Alford brought to campus. This is the first roster that is filled with guys that Mick brought to campus and it couldn’t have gone worse up to this point.

While the on the court struggles are one thing, Mick’s actions after these frustrating results have been a bad look. The Bruins were just swept in their two game homestand against the Bay Area schools, and Mick refused to show up to his post game press conference following Saturday’s loss to California. Assistant Coach Rod Palmer spoke to the media, which is flat out the Head Coaches responsibility. In addition, Cronin has thrown multiple players under the bus following these losses, and flat out isn’t acting like a coach I’d want my kids to play for. Even as someone who expected UCLA to take a step back, this has been a season where everything that could have gone wrong has gone as worse as possible.

Big East – Seton Hall

There wasn’t a hire in the 2021-2022 Head Coach Cycle that made more sense than Shaheen Holloway going back to his alma mater Seton Hall. Holloway was fresh off leading #15 seeded Saint Peters on a miraculous run to the Elite 8, and former Pirates Head Coach Kevin Willard had just left for Maryland. While it was always going to take some time for Shaheen to really get things rolling, his first season and a half at Seton Hall wasn’t necessarily ideal. The Pirates went 17-17 overall and 10-10 in Big East Conference play last season, losing in disappointing fashion in the opening round of the Big East Tournament to DePaul and in the first round of the NIT to Colorado.

Things didn’t get much better to start this season during non-conference play. The Pirates entered their game against Missouri on December 17th 5-4 overall, and 0-4 against Power Conference teams. A flip seemed to switch that day in Kansas City, as the Pirates defeated the Tigers 93-87 and controlled things for the majority of the second half. Seton Hall has continued the momentum since that game, and have collected a trio of wins over ranked teams in UConn, Marquette and Providence. There isn’t a team in all of College Basketball that has a trio of wins in the last month more impressive than those three by the Pirates.

Senior Guards Kadary Richmond and Al-Amir Dawes have stepped up in a massive way over the course of the last four games, just finding ways to win at any cause. Dawes was phenomenal in Saturday’s victory over Marquette with 23 points, on an efficient 7-10 from the floor and 4-5 from deep. Richmond also scored 21 points in the victory and scored a season high 23 in the Pirates victory over UConn. With Coach Holloway also getting key contributions from younger players in Jaden Bediako and Isaiah Coleman, this Pirates team has been a nice story in the Big East. Especially coming off of their struggles in non-conference play.

SEC – Texas A&M

Expectations were high for the Aggies entering the season, being voted as the favorite to win the SEC in the preseason media poll. This was for good reason, as the Aggies expected to return eight of their top nine leading scorers from last season’s team that went 15-3 in the league and made the NCAA Tournament. This season however hasn’t gone as smoothly as expected, as Texas A&M has started SEC play 0-2 and have more questions than answers at the moment.

It should be noted that big man Julius Marble has not played a second of basketball so far this season, while going through a “university process.” We haven’t gotten much of an update on Marble and it is unknown if he will be returning to the team any time soon. Not having the big man in the middle who averaged 9 points and 4 rebounds in only 20.8 minutes per game last season definitely hurts.

In addition, veteran Guard Tyrece Radford has missed five games this season due to injuries as well. While the Aggies were competitive against a very good Auburn team on the road Tuesday Night, SEC play couldn’t have started in more disappointing fashion than the way it did on Saturday against LSU. Texas A&M was outscored 38-21 in the second half, letting the Tigers shoot 40% from the field for the game and were outrebounded 46-40. This is a concern due to the fact that the offensive glass is usually the Aggies best form of offense, plus as a team they shot 5-28 from three.

As a team this season, Texas A&M ranks 355th in the country in three-point shooting at 26%. Simply put, they will have to shoot the basketball significantly better if they want to turn things around. The schedule will not be getting any easier with Kentucky coming to town on Saturday and a road trip to Arkansas and LSU to follow.

Big Ten – Nebraska

Despite Nebraska being one of the toughest jobs in all of power conference basketball, Fred Hoiberg’s seat was somewhat hot entering this season. Nebraska showed signs of progress in Hoiberg’s fourth season on the job in 2023, but the program had still not won more than 16 games or sniffed an NCAA Tournament during his tenure.

After a relatively easy non-conference schedule, Nebraska needed to start building a resume in Big Ten Conference play in order to march towards a tournament bid. And that is exactly what they’ve done to this point. The Cornhuskers collected not only their biggest win in the Fred Hoiberg era, but one of the biggest victories in program history on Tuesday Night against Purdue. This was Nebraska’s first win over the AP #1 ranked team since1983, when they defeated #1 Michigan. The Huskers shot a ridiculous 61% from three, thanks to 19 points from Kesei Tominaga and 16 points from C.J. Wilcher to get the job done. Purdue big man and National Player of the Year favorite Zach Edey got into some foul trouble early in the first half and Nebraska never looked back. Tominaga is a guy that is built to play in the NCAA Tournament, as a career 37% three-point shooter.

Coach Hoiberg deserves credit for adding some under the radar Transfers from the portal in the offseason, including Rienk Mask from Bradley, Brice Williams from Charlotte and Josiah Allick from New Mexico, who have all been significant contributors. With wins over Purdue, Michigan State and Indiana, Nebraska has the NCAA Tournament in sight and should be hearing their names called on Selection Sunday if they can manage to win the games they’re supposed to in the Big Ten.

With teams like Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Penn State, Rutgers, Iowa and Indiana, somewhat struggling relative to expectations, the opportunity is there for Nebraska to be one of the better teams in this conference. This is still a program looking for their first NCAA Tournament win ever, which will definitely be a storyline to monitor if the Huskers get into the dance for the first time since 2014.