College Basketball: February 1st Update

Coming into the season, one of the biggest things to monitor was how the combination of an extra COVID year, NIL deals and transfers not having to sit out for a year would affect the sport of College Basketball. These factors have contributed to one of the most thrilling starts to the season in recent memory. Already teams such as Gonzaga, Duke, Purdue and Baylor have lost with a #1 ranking next to their name. Although Auburn seems to be the best team in the country right now to many, they also just barely managed to beat a bad Missouri team, and as good as Auburn is they’re not unbeatable. There are about 9 or 10 teams that should have a legitimate chance to win the National Championship this year. A lot of that has to do with the gap shrinking between the top teams, a lot of which has to do with the 3 main factors listed earlier.

However, as we have been seeing recently in the NFL, parody is not the worst thing in the world. Over the past number of years, the usuals including Duke, Kentucky, North Carolina, Villanova and Virginia have all made deep runs. Last year it was great to see a new face like Baylor go all the way, and raise their first National Championship banner in Men’s Basketball history.  From start to finish, the two best teams in the sport were Gonzaga and Baylor and it was only fitting that those two teams played in the National Championship Game. This season, it is likely that the top two seeds in the NCAA Tournament will not be the last two teams standing. Many teams including Auburn, Gonzaga, Arizona, Duke, Baylor, UCLA, Purdue and more have all shown flashes of greatness. The most challenging part is being able to show that greatness on a consistent basis. That is what makes winning a National Championship so hard, especially in a tournament that is single elimination like March Madness. Last year, although a lot of the NCAA Tournament was pretty chalky with Baylor and Gonzaga making it al the way, a #11 seed UCLA also made it to the Final 4, and that was after starting their journey in the First 4 Play in Games. If March Madness’ from the past has ever taught us anything it is that surprises will happen and there will be a few teams that go on a run that no one really expects. With the amount of talent, spread all across the sport that is sure to continue this year.

In many ways, the way this season is shaping out is similar to the 2020 NCAA Tournament, which never ended up taking place due to COVID-19. Right before the world shut down, Kansas was considered by many to be the top team in the sport. However, many other teams such as Dayton, San Diego State, Seton Hall and Creighton were experiencing once in a lifetime type seasons along with other notables like Duke, Gonzaga and Baylor who all had realistic chances to win it all. It is so cool seeing fanbases of Auburn, Purdue, Providence and others really rally around their teams, with the knowledge that there is a good chance their squad is good enough to go on a deep run in March.

With the NFL season winding down, it is around this time of year that many people start to lock into College Basketball and catch up on what they have missed. Considering the amount of big games coming up this weekend with Duke North Carolina, UConn, Villanova, Baylor Kansas and more big time games on the horizon this week, peak College Basketball season is just about here. Just like the NFL, where we have just witnessed a new era of Quarterbacking with Brady and maybe Aaron Rodgers having early exits, we are entering a new era of College Basketball. The number of parody and good teams across the sport should do nothing but help the sport.

Quick Hits in Major Conferences

ACC –   Behind Duke, the ACC faced some familiar struggles this week, with a number of results that many did not see coming. The Blue Devils were able to earn a pair of road victories over Louisville and Notre Dame and looked impressive in the process. For the first time in a while, Duke showed flashes of the team that is not only the clear best team in the ACC but can also easily be considered a favorite to win it all in March.

Right after Florida State had seemed to turn their season around, they lost one of their better players in Malik Osborne, and dropped consecutive games to Georgia Tech and Virginia Tech.

Wake Forest, who had a legitimate argument as the team that was playing the best basketball in the league other than Duke, got blown out to an underachieving Syracuse team. Thankfully, for the league Miami was able to get back on track following Charlie Moore’s buzzer beater to beat Virginia Tech and blew out Georgia Tech. The same two teams that Florida State lost to in Virginia Tech and Georgia Tech just lost to Miami. What is ironic, is that Florida State has already beaten Miami twice this year, so the league is just continuing to beat each other up. That is the last thing you want, as a conference when you are trying to get as many bids into the NCAA Tournament as possible.

North Carolina has started to play a little bit better basketball of late, winning all three of their home games in the past week. The one main conclusion out of those games, was just how bad and uncompetitive, the Tar Heels in state rivals, North Carolina State looked.

This was a huge year for Kevin Keatts, due to the fact that he has not made the NCAA Tournament since his first year in Raleigh in 2018 and things seem to be getting worse and worse. Although the season could not have started worse, after losing Manny Bates for the season, there is no excuse for North Carolina State to be playing this badly. Even with 5 star Class of 2022 Freshman Robert Dillingham committed to the Wolfpack for next year, a change is needed if this continues.

Very quietly, Mike Brey and Notre Dame are starting to make a push towards a potential at large birth. After winning their last 3 ACC Conference games and the emergence of future 1st round NBA Draft pick Blake Wesley, the Irish went into Monday’s game against Duke in a position to really start a surge towards the NCAA Tournament. Unfortunately, the Blue Devils were too much for the Irish, controlling the game from start to finish and holding Notre Dame to shoot 28 % from the field and 17% from three. If Notre Dame wants to beat a team as good as Duke, you just have to score the ball better.

Big East –  The cream has really started to rise to the top in the Big East, with the clear best teams starting to separate themselves. Two of them were in action on Sunday, including Marquette and Providence in a game that brought back memories of the old Big East Conference with high physicality, no easy baskets and some quality offense.

Although many people have cited that Providence has been “lucky” to start the season, it is unknown how someone can come away not thinking they are a quality basketball team, after watching them every single time they take the floor. Ed Cooley’s team now has wins over Wisconsin, Texas Tech, Marquette, UConn and Xavier. Racking up all of those wins isn’t just luck and with a different Providence player stepping up every night for Ed Cooley, there is no reason to think this isn’t his best team since he arrived in Rhode Island.

Despite the close loss, all Shaka Smart’s Marquette team does is win, as they went into the big game against Providence on a 7 game winning streak. Sophomore Forward Justin Lewis, is making a legitimate case for Big East Conference Player of the Year, which included dropping a career high 33 points in Marquette’s blowout victory over Seton Hall on Tuesday. Lewis is one of the only three members from last year’s team under Steve Wojciechowski to come back and play for Shaka, and it has paid off for both times in a big way. It is so refreshing seeing this Marquette team play this hard for a guy like Shaka who fits the team so well.

Villanova and UConn are also right there competing for the Big East crown, and on Saturday UConn will head to Villanova, as one of the hotter teams in all of College Basketball. UConn still remains the only team in the entire country to take down Auburn, and they did it in early November which was the last time they were fully healthy until now. With UConn, at full strength and Villanova responding very nicely to their surprising loss against Marquette, we could be looking at the game of the year in the Big East between these two.

Xavier is the other team in the Big East that deserves some credit after picking up a monsterous win over Creighton on Saturday after trailing by 17 at the half. Xavier was able to outscore Creighton 55-28 in the second half, behind Paul Scrugs, Jack Nunge, Zach Freemantle and Nate Johnson all scoring at least 15 points. Despite the amount of really good players on this Xavier roster, Travis Steele played his best guys for a majority of the game and it paid off. Xavier still can reach the top tier in the Big east considering the amount of talent on this roster, but will have to show the effort we saw in the second half on Saturday consistently to get there.

Big 10 –  Many people are aware of the statistic that the Big Ten has not won a National Championship in basketball since the year 2000. However, even though the stat is out there and known by many, not enough people talk about just how crazy it is. Especially considering all of the really successful teams and programs in that conference over the past two decades.

Purdue has proven themselves to be one of the better teams in College Basketball, and if anyone in this conference has a realistic chance to end the Big Ten drought Purdue along with Illinois would be right at the top of the list. Purdue has shown they can beat anyone at any time when they are firing on all cylinders. With that being said, they have also lost to a number of teams they are better than and almost blew a 20 point lead to Ohio State at home on Sunday. Props to Jaden Ivey for hitting the game winner for Purdue, but the defensive struggles are starting to become super concerning. Pudue has now given up at least 65 points, in 7 of their 8 games since Big Ten Conference play started back up in December. The number one KenPOm comparison to this Purdue team, was last year’s version of Iowa. The same Hawkeyes team, who many people were convinced had an offense good enough to go all the way, despite being below average on defense. It ended with a very disappointing round of 32 defeat, against Oregon.

Brad Underwood and his Illinois Fighting Illini deserve credit, after finding a way to win both of their games this week without the services of potential All American big man Kofi Cockburn.  Especially without Kofi, the Illini are at their best when guys like Trent Frazier and Alfonso Plummer are making shots, and both of them combined for 27 of Illinois’ 55 points to give them a close victory in a rock fight against Michigan State. The Illini have really done a nice job responding to some adversity after getting blown out by Maryland not too long ago without Kofi, especially without Andre Curbelo in the past 2 games as well. The Illini will host Wisconsin on Tuesday Night who also belongs in the conversation at the top of the Big Ten.  How Wisconsin comes out on the road will be something to monitor, after winning 2 sleepers against Nebraska and Minnesota this past week before this big one. Long term, as long as Illinois is healthy, these Illini can be the one Big Ten team alongside Purdue to break the streak. They just need to make sure Kofi is fully healthy and ready to go by the month of March.

Michigan State is the other team in the conversation, and they did a nice job bouncing back to their loss against Illinois with a rivalry game win over Michigan. Michigan State has some nice wins on their resume, including UConn, at Wisconsin and Loyola Chicago, however they still have yet to put together a consistent stretch of really good, quality basketball. One good sign is that 5 star Freshman, Max Christie is starting to look more and more comfortable and had 16 points while shooting 4/4 from three against Michigan. If Christie can keep improving, this would be a game changer for Michigan State having a guy that can really go get them a bucket when they need it.

Big 12 –  There were some fireworks that came out of the Big 12/ SEC Challenge, and the unfortunate truth here is that it wasn’t the best weekend for the Big 12. After losing the challenge by a score 6-4, both of the top teams in the Big 12, Kansas and Baylor went down. Both results were surprising in different ways, with Baylor losing to the same Alabama team that has lost to Georgia and Missouri in the past 2 weeks and it is very rare to see a Bill Self Kansas team get absolutely smoked while playing at home. Things like that are exactly what makes a mid season non conference event more appealing and something many others should consider.

With Kansas and Baylor going down, there were also a number of other teams in the Big 12 that came out of the weekend with notable storylines. For example, Mark Adams continues to impress during his first year in charge of the Red Raiders. There is a very realistic chance that Texas Tech might be the best team in the Big 12. It is very rare that after watching a game you come away more impressed with the team that lost than the team that won. That is exactly what happened to Texas tech following their overtime loss to Kansas at the Phog on Monday Night.  Bryson Williams has been the go to guy for Tech and is very slowly becoming an absolute star. The 5th year Senior, who played his first two years of College at Fresno State, while playing the last two years at UTEP is Texas Tech’s answer every time they need a basket. What made Monday’s game so impressive for Williams, was how he was able to score from inside, mid range and from deep. He finished with 33 points, while shooting 14/19 from the field and a perfect 4/4 from three point range. Tech responded nicely following the Kansas loss, by blowing out Mississippi State in the Big 12/ SEC challenge. All eyes in College Basketball will be on the United Supermarkets Arena, on Tuesday Night when former Texas Tech Coach Chris Beard leads his Texas Longhorns into town for the first time since he left last spring.

For the first time all season, Texas is finally starting to rack up some wins together consecutively. Even after starting off this season with a 1st year Head Coach and a handful of transfers that have never played with each other before, things were not looking good for the Longhorns following their home loss to Kansas State on January 18th while blowing a late 5 point lead in the process. Since that loss, Texas has now won 3 consecutive games which included their best and most complete performance of the season up to this point, blowing out TCU last Tuesday . It is very encouraging to see this group come back from such a big road win, after almost blowing a big lead and find a way to beat Tennessee. Teams that face adversity and still find ways to win is what the best teams in the sport usually find a way to do. It was important for Texas to earn a quality win outside the conference, after not earning many marquee wins early in the season.

Finally, TCU is starting to become the sleeper team in the Big 12 following their wins this past week against LSU and Oklahoma, bouncing back nicely from their disappointing loss to Texas in the process. Dixon smartly, did not schedule the most difficult non-conference schedule for the Horned Frogs, knowing that there would be plenty of chances for quality wins in the Big 12 and it would take some time for his team to get the chemistry down with so many transfers. TCU has now won 3 of their last 4 games, which includes victories over Iowa State, LSU, and Oklahoma in the process. Jamie Dixon is still the same coach that won a lot of games during his time at Pitt, and can absolutely win some games with this talented of a group in Fort Worth.

Pac 12 –   For what seemed like the first time all season, the Pac 12 finally had the bright lights on them Tuesday night when Arizona took on UCLA. This was a big game for the fact that these are the two clear best teams in the Pac 12, but also fans were back at Pauley Pavillion for the first time in over a month and they made a significant impact. UCLA dominated the game from start to finish, and was able to hand Arizona their second loss of the season. Mick Cronin still has a team full of the same players that got all the way to the Final 4 last year. With that being said, due to a lot of circumstances out of the Bruins control like COVID pauses, no fans and more, Mick Cronin or anyone else around College Basketball, didn’t know who or what exactly UCLA. That was cleared up this past week, when UCLA followed up the Arizona game, by beating up on a Stanford team that has been playing much better basketball of late. The level of concern isn’t significantly high for Arizona, because they won’t play a worse game than this one for the rest of the season and will have a good chance to get right back at UCLA, on Thursday when the Bruins come to Tucson.

As the first few weeks of the season went on, UCLA and Arizona were not alone, at the top tier in the Pac 12. Andy Enfield’s USC Trojans started the season winning all of their first 13 games, before losing three of their last six, and two of those losses came to Stanford. Although losing to Stanford isn’t necessarily the worst thing in the world there is some concern starting to rise. The fact that it is about February and USC’s best win remains over San Diego State, who is not anything close to  a 100% lock for the NCAA Tournament. While a lot of that will have to do with the fact that there aren’t that many opportunities for good wins outside of UCLA and Arizona for the Trojans, USC’s play in other conference games hasn’t been anything spectacular. USC will really have to do the best they can in their 3 remaining games against the best the Pac 12 has to offer when they face Arizona and UCLA. God forbid, they drop all three of those games, it is not 100% sure that USC won’t be a tournament team, but not many power 5 teams end up getting in without any wins over others at large teams which should make things interesting going forward.

SEC –  It has been apparent for a while now, but Auburn and Kentucky have not only established themselves as the clear 2 best teams in the SEC, but might just be the best 2 teams in the sport. The Big 12/ SEC Challenge is one of the most exciting events of the College Basketball season, and it lived up to the hype this past weekend. Kentucky was a big reason why, going into Phog Allen Fieldhouse, the same place where Bill Self has lost less than 20 games in his 19 years at Kansas and dominated. It was a rare game, when it was apparent the game was over within the first 4 minutes. This was also the first of many big road games this season, when Kentucky had TyTy Washington, Oscar Tscheibwe, Sahvir Wheeler, and Kellen Grady all healthy for the entire game. In addition, Junior Forward Keion Brooks rose to the occasion, with a career high 27 points along with 8 rebounds. It was great to see a kid like Brooks, who has been through so much adversity during his years in Lexington have a moment like that. With those 4 guys healthy and rolling Kentucky will be right up there in terms of the toughest teams to beat in all of College Basketball.

All Auburn and Bruce Pearl does is continue to win, following their victories over Missouri and Oklahoma. In a game that had the potential for a possible let down spot following Auburn’s game against Kentucky, Bruce Pearl’s squad was able to earn a close hard fought victory over Missouri. Even though Missouri isn’t the best team in the world, Auburn deserves credit after trialing for a lot of that game and still finding a way to win even though it wasn’t their best night. Auburn Arena should be electric, for Tuesday Nights rematch against Alabama.

Speaking of Alabama, with the recent struggles of LSU and Tennessees there is now an opening for who is the third best team in the conference.  The narrative that Alabama can either beat anyone or lose to anyone in the country was confirmed following Alabama’s win over Bayor on Saturday. Alabama needed this win, coming off losing 3 of their previous last 5 games and barely beating Missouri in one of the victories during that stretch. This Baylor game marked the beginning of a ridiculous 3 three stretch for Alabama, as they have at Auburn and Kentucky at home next. This is the same team that now has wins over Gonzaga, Baylor and Houston who all made the Final 4 last year, along with brutal losses to Missouri, Memphis, and Georgia. There is no denying this Alabama team will be one of the more difficult teams to seed on Selection Sunday.

Arkansas and LSU are two other teams that should be recognized and for the opposite reasons. Following Arkansas’ victory on Saturday over West Virginia, the Razorbacks have now won 6 games in a row and have appeared to turn a corner, after what was a tough start to the season. Eric Mussleman coached teams usually take some time to click, considering all of the new faces and this Arkansas team is no different. JD Notae, one of the few returners from last year’s squad that made it all the way to the Elite 8, is becoming the go to go along with other transfers including Stanley Umude, Trey Wade and Audiese Toney making an impact. With home games upcoming against Mississippi State and Auburn, the Hogs will be back in the NCAA Tournament conversation if these good times continue.

Unfortunately for Will Wade and LSU, the Tigers have now lost 4 of their past 5 games. It should be noted that Senior Forward Darius Days has been in and out of the lineup during this time, along with Xavier Pinson who just returned to the lineup in Saturday’s game. At full strength, there should still be some belief in Will Wade’s squad as they are still really good defensively and should score the ball a little better with Pinson back in the lineup. However, if the wins don’t start coming with a much easier path on the schedule, then some concerns will start to rise. Don’t let people fool you, just because they hate Will Wade, the man is still one heck of a basketball coach that has found ways to win games consistently since he got to Baton Rouge.

The SEC did end up taking the Challenge by a final score of 6-4, winning the event for the second year in a row and showing their basketball is just as good as any other conference. Hopefully, more conferences can do events like this in the midst of Conference play, giving themselves new tests and challenges against teams they don’t see every day leading up to March.

Zac’s Elite 8

1) Auburn – When Auburn fans thought the past week and change couldn’t have gotten better, Athletic Director Allen Greene announced on Friday Night that Bruce Pearl will be coaching on the Plains for a “Long Long Time.” This contract extension is well deserved, after Pearl has led Auburn all the way up to #1 in the AP Top 25 and with rumors of  Louisville and Maryland being interested swirling. Even though Auburn’s top interest is usually football, Pearl has revitalized Auburn Basketball and every single game is now must-see TV.  Pearl’s energy and passion for the Auburn program is exactly what any Football School who wants to focus on basketball should be looking for. Prior to Pearl’s arrival, Auburn had gone 10 of the last 11 previous years, without winning 20 games. People forget that Auburn could have made a deep run in the 2020 NCAA Tournament, had it not been postponed due to COVID. Just one year after making it to the Final 4 in 2019, Pearl won 25 games in 2020, and has now had Auburn as one of the top teams in the country, in three of the past 4 years.

2) Gonzaga – While the West Coast Conference has not been as good as many expected, that has nothing to do with the play of Gonzaga. Even with BYU, San Francisco and St Mary’s all expected to and still having realistic NCAA Tournament aspirations, it is clear none of them are close to the same level as these Bulldogs. Gonzaga is now 6-0 in the WCC, following Saturday’s win over Portland and the 6 wins are coming by an average of 29 points. Chet Holmgren’s performance against Portland was very encouraging, with 4 made threes and 11 rebounds. Gonzaga still has to play road games against all three of those quality opponents, including ending the season at San Francisco and at BYU. With these games coming at the end of the season, they will be a good warm up call for the Bulldogs before they enter March. As great of a program as Gonzaga is, not being used to playing the best of the best during the regular season has cost them the last handful of years. There is no doubt that this team is good enough to win a National Championship, but the question will still remain if they can win 6 consecutive games against the best in the NCAA Tournament.

3) Arizona – Unfortunately, the Wildcats suffered  their second loss of the season on Tuesday at UCLA. As bad of a performance as it was for the Wildcats, this was going to be the toughest challenge they faced in Pac 12 play, especially with fans returning to Pauley Pavillion. Arizona struggled on Saturday at times in a rivalry game against Arizona State, but were able to find a way to leave with a victory. Even with Arizona not playing their best over their last 2 games, the Wildcats still deserve this spot in the rankings leading up to their chance to get some revenge against UCLA on Thursday Night in Tucson. Arizona played their worst game of the season on Tuesday Night in Westwood, shooting only 31% from the field and 25% from three. In addition, Point Guard Kerr Kriisa, played the worst game of his career, which included 0/12 from the field and 0/9 three. There is no chance he will play that poorly again this season. The emergence of Gonzaga transfer Oumar Ballo has the potential to give this Arizona team another weapon that can do serious damage. Ballo has now scored in double digits in three of Arizona’s last 4 games, and is giving Arizona some much needed production off the bench.

4) Kentucky – There hasn’t been a more impressive performance in College Basketball this season, than the one we saw from Kentucky on Saturday. After failing to win some of their early road games against quality teams including Auburn, LSU and Notre Dame, Kentucky was in need of a big time road performance and that is exactly what happened. Kansas Coach Bill Self has more Big Championships than home losses, so anytime you are able to go into the Phog and win that should be considered a great accomplishment. Kentucky not only beat Kansas, but it felt like the game was over, before it really even started. Kentucky was able to stretch their league all the way to 12, midway through the first half and never looked back. It was apparent against Kansas, just how dangerous this Kentucky team can be when they are at full strength. John Calipari’s team has so many guys that can do so many things well, and he deserves credit for constructing this roster together so nicely, just one year after the worst Kentucky basketball season in recent memory.

5) Purdue – The Boilers, have to be one of the more intriguing and polarizing teams in all of College Basketball. There were times against Iowa and Ohio State this past week, where Purdue looked like they could be the best team in the country. On the other side, Purdue was up 52-32 with 14;35 remaining and Ohio State was able to tie the game. Luckily,  this was before Jaden Ivey hit the buzzer beater to seal the victory for Purdue. Props to the Boilers, they are putting together a resume of a one or two seed in the NCAA Tournament, with a number of quality victories which include Illinois and Iowa on the road in Big Ten play. With the Big Ten not winning a national Championship since 2000 and a very disappointing performance for the conference last March, many think this Purdue team could finally be the one to end the drought. Jaden Ivey is an assassin with the ball in his hands, Trevion Williams is the best passing big in College Basketball, Sasha Stefonovic knows how to make clutch shots. Matt Painter has an argument to be the best Coach in College Basketball that hasn’t made a Final 4, and hopefully one day will come. However, a deep run this year would be so big for Purdue and for Painter as a coach.

6) UCLA – Mick Cronin wasn’t exactly sure what he had with the team for weeks. However, the Bruins were back in a big game in a normal environment on Tuesday Night against Arizona. It was so impressive seeing flashes of the same Bruins team that made it to the Final 4 last year, against Arizona as the Bruins dominated the game from start to finish. Going into the game even though both Arizona and UCLA were considered by most to be the 2 best teams in the Pac 12, we had already seen Arizona hit that other gear that only the best teams in College Basketball can hit. Up until Tuesday, UCLA hadn’t been able to show that gear but a lot of that had to do with the long COVID pause and not playing in front of fans to start Pac 12 play. That is what made the game against Arizona so intriguing and Pauley Pavilion lived up to the hype. Although UCLA made it to the Final 4 last year and brought back their whole team, they were an 11 seed and came very close to losing their first 4 game against Michigan State. However, guys like Johnny Juzang, Jaime Jaquez Jr, Tyger Campbell, Cody Riley, Jules Bernard and others have played in enough big games and mesh together so well. UCLA should still be considered one of the best teams in the country, due to the fact that these guys know how to play together in big games.

7) Duke – For the majority of Duke’s game against Louisville, even though Duke was in control for the most part and you never thought they would lose, they were not impressive in any way. Duke was short handed in this one without Freshman Trevor Keels, who hasn’t been that impressive since his opening night performance against Kentcuky. Even shorthanded given the circumstances of playing against Louisville after Chris Mack this is a game they should have won. However, that changed in a big way when Duke ended the game on a 14-5 run to secure the win, and they showed the same flashes of greatness as they did in the victory over Gonzaga. The momentum continued against Notre Dame on Monday Night, after Duke held Notre Dame to 14 first half points in an elite defensive performance. Freshman AJ Griffin was phenomenal against Louisville, shooting a perfect 5/5 from three and scoring 22 points.  Duke seemed like a team that has been sleep walking a little bit through the ACC, but the last two games have changed the narrative in a big time way. Duke is still a legitimate National Championship contender, for Coach K’s last ride.

8) Baylor – Although Baylor was able to get James Akinjo and Jeremy Sochan back in the lineup and healthy on Saturday against Alabama, they suffered their third loss of the season in the Big 12/ SEC Challenge. The loss on Saturday to Alabama wasn’t even the most concerning thing for Baylor coming out of the game. Instead, the attention has shifted to leading scorer LJ Cryer, who missed the game with a foot injury. In addition Baylor was without the services of Cryer and Senior Guard Adam Flagler on Monday Night against West Virginia. When the Bears are fully healthy this is a team that is still fully capable of winning a National Championship for the second year in a row. Sochan along with fellow Freshman Kendall Brown, were really able to step up in the win against West Virginia. After trailing for a majority of the game, the two Freshmen combined for 22 points and 14 rebounds. With both likely being first round picks in this upcoming NBA Draft, Scott Drew has done a phenomenal job turning Baylor into a place where the best players in the country want to play.

Mid Major Top 10

1. Gonzaga

2. Murray State

3. Wyoming

4. Iona

5. Davidson

6. St. Marys

7. Boise State

8. Loyola- Chicago

9. Colorado State

10. BYU

Weekly Awards

Team of the Week: UCLA

Player of the Week: Bryce Hamlton (UNLV)

Coach of the Week:  John Calipari

Flop of the Week:  Florida State