College Basketball: February 8th Update

The element of pure hatred between two teams is something that has been missing in the sport of College Basketball. Whether it is because of the fact that coaches and players are much friendlier off the floor or players coming in and out of school pretty quickly, there hasn’t been an elite rivalry brewing that everyone wants to see.

That officially changed on Tuesday Night in Lubbock Texas, when former Red Raiders Head Coach Chris Beard returned for the first time, since leaving for the same position at Texas this past spring. Texas Tech fans did a really good job packing the United SuperMarkets Arena, which has become one of the best home court advantages in the sport. A lot of that has to do with Beard and how he built this program all the way up during his 5 years in Lubbock.

With that being said, there is a good reason why Texas Tech fans are not very fond of Chris Beard. Never again in College or Pro sports, will there be a coach who leaves for the same job, in the same state as his old team’s arch rival.

People started camping out more than 48 hours prior to the game, and the entire city of Lubbock was buzzing well before the game came close to starting. Chris Beard walking out of the tunnel with about 6 police officers escorting him to the bench, was similar to a heavyweight boxer walking out of the ring for a heavyweight title fight. Once the game started, it was never in doubt for the Red Raiders who left with a 77-64 victory. There were only a few jobs that Chris Beard would have left everything he built at Texas Tech for and considering he is a Texas alum it was not shocking that Texas was one of them.

Longhorns and Red Raiders fans have always felt this rivalry is the classic Brother vs Little Brother matchup, which is pretty common among College Sports. Considering Austin is the state capital, where everyone loves to go and Lubbock is further out west and can be difficult to get to at times, the Red Raiders have always felt like the underdog whenever these two square up. However, very few environments including any Texas Basketball in recent memory, would not have been able to match, last Tuesday Night.

Mark Adams, who has been Chir Beard’s right hand man since he became the Head Coach of Arkansas Little Rock in 2016, has done a great job keeping the DNA Beard built inside his program. Similar to Beard, Adams has brought in many transfers to play key roles for his Red Raider club. Unlike Beard though, a lot of these transfers are from the mid major ranks including Bryson Williams (UTEP), Adonis Arms (Winthrop), and Kevin Obanor (Oral Roberts.) Adams’ eye for talent, along with convincing key returnee’s like Kevin McCullar and Terrance Shannon Jr. should make Texas Tech fans elated about the future of this program.

The atmosphere for Beard’s return to Lubbock for the first time will be very difficult to match. But with that being said, the hatred between these two in-state rivals will not be going anywhere, which is great for College Basketball. Texas Tech fans should acknowledge just how much a guy like Beard changed this program for the better, while also appropriately having severe hatred, how it ended.

Hits in Major Conferences

ACC –   Since the start of the season, Duke has established themselves as the clear best team in the ACC. However, at times it felt like sometimes that statement was more of a result of the conference being down, opposed to Duke being really good. It looked like that may have changed the past two and a half games for Duke in a big way. The Duke Blue Devils made an absolute statement this past weekend picking up blowout road wins over Notre Dame and North Carolina. It was refreshing to see Duke play this well against teams that they were beating, because they also lost close games to Ohio State, Miami and Florida while none of those games should have really been close to begin with. However, the frustrations to play at a consistent level for Duke continued on Monday night, at home against Virginia. Duke was trailing for most of the game and came out really slow, and it was a three point shot with under a second to go by Reece Beekman that cost them. There is no doubt then when Duke is at their best, they are one of the best teams in College Basketball. They just have not been able to reach that level anywhere close to consistently, and the number of close losses are really starting to add up.

In addition to Duke being the clear best team, the ACC has also been looking for a second best team behind Duke since the start of the season. They have now officially found one in Wake Forest. Steve Forbes’ Demon Deacons are one of the 25 best teams in the country right now and are also really fun to watch. Oklahoma transfer Alondes Williams, has been an absolute steal in the portal and is  playing at an elite level. In addition Indiana State transfer Jake LaRavia is quickly approaching NBA Draft boards thanks to his 6’8 height and ability to shoot the basketball. Wake took a tough loss at Syracuse last week, but bounced back nicely with a pair of wins this week over Pittsburgh and at Florida State.

There are a few teams going in opposite directions in the ACC. For example, North Carolina fans are officially concerned and with good reason following their blowout home loss to Duke. The Tar Heels are now 0-7 in Quadrant 1 games under first year Head Coach Hubert Davis. After legendary Head Coach Roy Williams decided to retire this past offseason many were confused why North Carolina didn’t hold a legitimate coaching search, and just immediately announced that they would be staying in house, with the hire of Hubert Davis. It is understandable that Davis is in his first year, but 0-7 in Quadrant 1 games speaks for itself as North Carolina is currently living on the bubble in desperate need of quality wins.

Syracuse is a team that is going in the opposite direction, and based on their recent history not many would be shocked if they find themselves on the bubble come Selection Sunday. After a disappointing start to the season, Syracuse has now won 3 games in a row including a blowout win over Wake Forest and Buddy Boeheim is starting to play his best basketball of the season, just at the right time. With a home game against Duke, scheduled for February 26th, the Orange will have a golden opportunity to seriously get themselves back in NCAA Tournament contention.

Notre Dame was the other ACC team that picked up a monster win at Miami, on Wednesday night just days after not being able to score the ball at all against Duke. The Irish were also able to pick up a win at NC State on Saturday, going 2-1 in their 3 games in a 7 day stretch.

Miami still looks like an NCAA Tournament team as of now, but losing back to back games to Notre Dame and Virginia, shortly after getting swept by Florida State is not going to help their cause. Jimmy Larranaga will need his guards to continue to make plays and control the games better, with games at Wake Forest and at Louisville approaching.

Big East –  Providence and Marquette have clearly established themselves as the best two teams in the Big East right now, even if the metrics don’t back it up. KenPom is a database that is very helpful in some aspects, but sometimes when it comes to ranking teams their algorotheum will get a little confused and there will be a clear typo. This is one of those examples, as Providence is currently ranked #41 with a current record of 20-2. Some teams in front of them include UAB, Alabama, San Francisco, Iowa State and Utah State. All of those teams have no business being in front of Providence and it is clear that Providence is a good basketball team every single time they take the floor. Jared Bynum, has emerged as the lead guard that the Friars have needed, and has been playing absolutely lights out over the past 2 weeks. Bynum hit the game winning three pointer at Xavier, and followed it up by dropping 32 points in Providence’s blowout win over Georgetown on Sunday. There is no donut about it, this is Ed Cooley’s best team since he got to Providence, and the Friars are absolutely capable of making a deep run in March.

In addition to Providence, Marquette has also arrived as the other team in the top tier of the Big East. Shaka Smart’s team has only lost one game in the past month and it was a close road loss, in a back and forth game at Providence. On Tuesday Night, Marquette became only the 3rd team since the Big East realigned in 2013-2014, to complete a season sweep over Villanova. Marquette has two NBA players currently on their roster, in Justin Lewis and Darryl Morsell and both of them balled out in the win against Villanova.

Morsell, who was known as a primarily defensive stopper during his years at Maryland has exploded this season, proving to everyone that he is capable of scoring the ball at an elite level. Although Marquette did lose a handful of talented players from last year’s team, Shaka’s most important move was bringing back Big East Conference Player of the Year favorite Justin Lewis. After a decent Freshman year, Lewis has exploded onto the scene as a Sophomore currently averaging 16.6 points per game and 7.9 rebounds per game. The fact that Shaka Smart has this Marquette program so ahead of schedule in only his first year, should have Marquette fans absolutely ecstatic about the future of this Golden Eagles program.

UConn had as disappointing of a week as anyone in the country, dropping both of their games to Creighton and at Villanova. The reason why these losses were so disappointing is the fact that many people have been waiting to see the UConn team at full strength for the first time since they beat Auburn and no one has defeated them since. Instead of making a statement, UConn dropped a home game to a Creighton team that they are clearly better than and got run out of the gym by a shorthanded Villanova team that was missing Justin Moore. The next 5 games will tell us a lot about the Huskies, when they host Marquette, head to Xavier and St Johns, followed by home games against Seton Hall and Xavier.

Villanova deserves credit for bouncing back from a loss nicely, and it is not the first time they have done it this season. Jay Wright’s squad has proven to be very mentally tough, and it was on full display after they beat up on a fully healthy UConn team, shorthanded when their confidence could have easily been pretty low following the blowout loss at Marquette, just a few days earlier. Redshirt Sophomore Eric Dixon, has become the latest Villanova player to prove how valuable it is to stay in school, and the improvement that comes with it. Dixon led Villanova with 24 points and 12 rebounds in the win over UConn.

One consistent trait for all of Travis Steele’s teams since he arrived at Xavier has been his teams having talent and underachieving. That narrative has never been more true, than this season when Xavier suffered an unacceptable home loss to DePaul, who was missing their top player in Javon Freeman Liberty. Considering Xavier was lucky to beat DePaul in Chicago last week and the Musketeers have yet to play consistently good basketball since Big East play started there should be some concerns. Xavier has 6 guys that can drop 20 points on any given night, but they are getting no consistency. If Travis Steele can’t win with this team, then there should be some serious concerns if he will ever be able to overachieve based on the talent he has been bringing in.

Big 10 –  The line has officially been drawn in the sand when it comes to the top of the Big Ten. Purdue and Illinois are on one side, and the rest of the conference is on another. Purdue has been a team on many people’s radar, as a team that has the makeup of getting to a Final 4, and possibly even being the first Big Ten team to win a National Championship in basketball since the year 2000. With that being said, Illinois is also built really well to win games in March, but they have had trouble staying healthy and getting everyone on the court at the same time.

Brad Underwood has been dealing with injuries since the season started. Right away, on November 12th vs Arkansas State, Preseason 1st team Big Ten Conference player Andre Curbelo left the game with a neck injury. Ever since, Underwood has been waiting to see just how good this Illini team can be, once all of their pieces are back. In addition, National Player of the Year candidate Kofi Cockburn had been in and out of the lineup at times with concussion issues. Without Kofi, Illinois did drop a few games to Marquette and Maryland, and it was not pretty. Nevertheless, it was not used as an excuse, and Illinois really started to learn how to play relying on their guards without Kofi. 5th year Senior Guard Trent Frazier has been playing the best basketball of his career and always makes something happen when the ball is in his hands. Illinois also did a really good job taking advantage of the transfer portal by bringing in Alonfso Plummer from Utah, who is one of the best shooters in the entire country. Earlier in the season, when Kofi was in the middle of the floor surrounded by such great shooters like Frazier and Plummer, this team was very difficult to guard.

Many will forget, that this Illinois team is coming off a 24-7 2021 season, which resulted in the Illini earning a #1 seed in the NCAA Tournament. There is no doubt that the embarrassment of losing in the second round of the tournament to Loyola Chicago will serve as motivation, this time around. Illinois also lost the best closer in the sport a year ago, in Ayo Dosumno to the NBA. Last year, Illinois was so dependent on Ayo and Kofi that it was easier for teams to focus on those two and let someone else beat them. This year focusing on one or two players against Illinois, will blow up in your face because there are 4 shooters in Frazier, Plummer, Jacob Grandison and Damonte Williams around Kofi, that can burn you any time. No team in the sport had a better week than these Illini who picked up a pair of wins over Wisconsin and at Indiana. For the first time all season it finally felt like the rest of the College Basketball world has started to realize just how good this Illini team can be. Tuesday Night’s heavyweight clash between the Illini and Purdue will be must-see TV, after these two played a double overtime thriller on January 17th.

Another Big Ten team that is very quietly starting to make some noise is Rutgers, who continues to use their tremendous home court to their advantage, as they picked up a blowout win over Michigan State. A few head scratching losses earlier in the season to Lafayette, DePaul and UMass had many leaving Rutgers for dead. However, when you play in a league like the Big Ten where there are so many opportunities for quality wins, it only takes a couple to find yourself back in the Tournament picture. Rutgers now has a pair of really good wins over Purdue and Michigan State. This is with home games against Ohio State, Illinois and Wisconsin on the schedule before the end of the season. Steve Pikell’s team does have a real chance at making a late push and making it to back to back NCAA Tournaments for the first time since 1975 and 1976.

Following the blow out loss, Michigan State returns to the floor in a quick turnaround against the same Wisconsin team they beat earlier this season in Madison. Wisconsin was not at full strength in that one, without the services of Tyler Wahl and will be ready to get some revenge. There still hasn’t been one stretch this season, where Michigan State has been able to put together a few really good performances in a row. The Spartans are really good, but still have some work to do in order to get to the top tier of the Big Ten, and Tuesday night against Wisconsin will be a huge test coming off a few lackluster performances.

Big 12 –  How many times, over the past 20 years has Kansas gone into a big game at Phog Allen Fieldhouse, coming off of a tough loss and comes out ready to make a statement. Although Kansas was coming off a nice road win at Iowa State, the last time the Jayhawks took the floor at Phog Allen was when they got blown out by Kentucky in the Big 12/ SEC challenge. Getting blown out at home is something that happens very rarely to Bill Self coached Kansas teams. It was apparent from very early on that Kansas was ready to make a statement. Kansas  led 39-21 at the half and never looked back.

Following the loss, Baylor has now dropped 4 out of their last 8 games after starting the season with 15 consecutive victories. Although things do seem pretty glum for the Bears right now, the number one priority needs to be getting healthy as soon as possible. The injuries don’t make Baylor’s last 8 games acceptable per se, they do provide a little bit of context as to what is happening. Baylor have had a handful of players in and out of the lineup fighting injuries over the past 8 games, including James Akinjo, Jeremy Sochan, Adam Flagler, Kendall Brown and most recently leading scorer LJ Cryer who is dealing with a foot injury.. Akinjo is really the key for this Baylor team as he led the Bears to victory on Monday night against West Virginia. in a game Baylor easily could have lost with 25 points. This was a game Baylor could have easily lost after trailing for a majority of the 1st half without the services of LJ Cryer. When healthy this Bears team can still beat anyone, but they are clearly a shell of their real selves right now.

The environment on Tuesday in Lubbock for Chris Beard’s much anticipated return to Lubbock, was as good as any this sport has seen over the last decade. 65 year old, first time D1 Head Basketball coach Mark Adams, has Texas Tech rolling and they even have a legitimate argument for best team in Big 12 after already beating both Kansas and Baylor earlier this season. It was great to see a certain level of hate back in play for a big time College Basketball game especially for a regular season game. When a coach leaves in that manner, Texas Tech fans have every reason to feel the way they do about Beard and it was surreal to take in.

Texas was able to rise to the occasion for their biggest win of the season on Monday Night over Kansas. Marcus Carr, Timmy Allen, Tre Mitchell and Courtney Ramey were phenomenal down the stretch. These Longhorns finally have some momentum after winning their last 3 games in a row, and gaining some confidence. Texas’ effort on Tuesday night at Texas Tech was pretty respectable considering the circumstances. This was one of those games where you knew going in, that it would be very difficult for Texas to win and if they did an entirely new conversation would have to take place regarding the Longhorns. After coming into the season ranked in the top 5 with the arrival of Chris Beard and some of the best transfers on the market including Marcus Carr and Timmy Allen, Texas’ 17-6 start to the season has been pretty disappointing. A lot of that has to do with the fact that most times they take the floor, most of the guys still looked pretty confused on the offensive side of the ball and there have been no clear roles that have really been established.

Pac 12 – The spotlight was back on the Conference of Champions on Thursday Night, when UCLA took on Arizona in Tucson. The scene at the McKale Center looked absolutely electric, as it was the biggest game for an Arizona fan base since Sean Miller really had things going about 3 to 4 years ago. After getting pounded by the Bruins in Westwood less than two weeks ago, Arizona was able to respond in a big way by controlling this one from start to finish and leaving with a 76-66 win. There isn’t a more physically imposing team in College Basketball, than these Wildcats. The shortest player in their Starting 5 is 6’3 Kerr Kriisa and they have a 7 footer off the bench in Oumar Ballo who has been tremendous of late. Tommy Lloyd continues to do a great job implementing his fast pace, spacing oriented offense with the very talented group of players that were already here with Sean Miller. The scary thing is, Forward Ąžuolas Tubelis has been dealing with a nagging ankle injury and still won Pac 12 Player of the Week in the last 7 days.

There wasn’t anyone who had a worse week than Mick Cronin. After UCLA dropped Thursday Night’s game to Arizona in a raucous environment, a Video was released showing UCLA redshirt freshman forward Mac Etienne making two spitting motions towards the Arizona student section. In a media release issued Friday, police said they had cited Etienne on suspicion of assault with intent to injure, insult or provoke, which is a Class 3 misdemeanor, and released him. Etienne just let his emotions get the best of him, which can happen to many young kids acting as the enemy in an environment like that. With that being said, doing something like that is not acceptable and proper punishments will take place. This is the last thing Mick Cronin needed, after a number of things have come up this season. Many of which UCLA had zero control over including injuries and COVID pauses,and these have given the Bruins a good look at a lot of adversity. That adversity continued, on Saturday night when UCLA dropped a triple overtime thriller, against an Arizona State they should be beating. Things will not be getting easier anytime soon, when UCLA travels to Stanford on Tuesday to take on a Cardinal team that has been playing much better of late and already beaten USC twice.

Andy Enfield’s USC Trojans are a team who needs to be looked at going forward. After starting the season with 13 consecutive victories, USC picked up their 4th loss of the season on Saturday against Arizona. Although USC did compete throughout the game,there is a massive elephant in the room right now. That is the fact that it is February and the best team that USC has beaten is San Diego State. That is a decent win, but considering the Aztecs are not a 100% lock for the NCAA Tournament just yet, should be a little concerning. That is why Saturday’s game against Arizona was so important. USC needed a win in the absolute worst way. Luckily, USC will have a major opportunity to bounce back and earn the quality win they have been looking for on Saturday when rival UCLA comes to town. USC still has both games against UCLA along with a road game on the schedule. However losses in those games, could result in Trojans fans being extremely nervous going into Selection Sunday.

SEC –  Following Auburn’s narrow win over Georgia and Kentucky business trip like road win over Alabama, there has been some chatter over who is really the best team in the SEC? Where it gets really intriguing, is that even though Auburn did defeat Kentucky on January 22nd, Freshman guard TyTy Washington left the game early and when he left Kentucky did have the lead. Washington showed just how important he is for Kentucky’s long term aspirations, leading the team in scoring with 15 points. Similar to Illinois, it hasn’t been until recently that John Calipari has been able to see all of his pieces healthy and on the floor at the same time. When that is the case, coaches sometimes aren’t exactly sure what they have in their team yet or just how good the team can really be. Following Kentucky’s losses to LSU and Auburn, it was not totally clear how those games would have gone, if Kentucky had been able to stay healthy. Over the past two weeks, Kentucky at full strength has gone on the road to Kansas and Alabama and won comfortably. Auburn deserves credit for finding a way to win a road game, where it felt like they easily could be going down many times. For the first time, it was apparent just how important Zep Jasper is to the team and leading the offense, as he missed the game with a non COVID related illness. Wendell Green has proven to be one of the better gets in the Transfer Portal, dropping 19 points against Georgia including the eventual game winning basket with under two seconds remaining. Unfortunately there is no return game at Rupp Arena for Auburn, so the hope is that these two goaliaths will match up once again in the SEC Tournament.

Two other teams in the SEC that deserve some attention are Arkansas and LSU and for totally different reasons. Eric Mussleman’s Razorbacks have now won 8 consecutive games, heading into their biggest test of the season on Tuesday Night when Auburn comes to Bud Walton Arena. Usually when you have a team full of transfers and new players, they will struggle early in the season. This is due to the fact that there are no clear roles established and no one really knows each other’s strengths and weaknesses just yet. But, similarly to many other Eric Mussleman coached teams that consist of a lot of transfers, this Arkansas team has really started to get things figured out. The Razorbacks have won 8 games in a row, after things got off to a really rocky start. Point Forward, Jaylin Williams who was a key factor in Arkasnas’ turnaround last season, does a great job making the proper decision and Arkansas is at their best playing through him. Bud Walton Arena will be electric on Tuesday, in a game where Arkansas can really assert themselves as a sure fire NCAA Tournament team.

LSU has now lost 6 of their last 7 games following Saturday’s loss to Vanderbilt. The knee injury to Xavier Pinson on January 8th against Tenneseee, has derailed things for LSU. At the beginning of the season, unlike Will Wade’s other teams since he got to Baton Rouge, this LSU team was actually playing defense but couldn’t score. Unfortunately the offensive struggles have continued and the defense has fallen back down to earth which has resulted in this skid. After opening up the SEC season with a brutal stretch, the schedule does ease up for LSU with games at Texas A & M, and home against Mississippi State and Georgia upcoming.

The Tennessee Vols have started to turn things around, winning their last 5 SEC games and the offense has finally started to click. While Point Guard Kennedy Chandler, was the headliner of this Tennessee Freshman class which is considered by most to be one of the best classes in the sport, it is another Freshman that has taken everyone by surprise. Instead, it is the 5’10 3 star Freshman Point Guard Zakai Zeigler that has really provided a spark on the offensive end for a Vols team that has had some trouble scoring the ball at many points this season. Zeigler contributed 18 points, while shooting 4/5 from three against South Carolina and has scored in double digits in each of Tennessee’s last 4 games. Very few coaches in the country aside from Rick Barnes, can have a 3 star Freshman playing this pivotal role, on a really good Tennessee team. In addition, Junior Santiago Vescovi is one of the most improved players in the country and has adapted to the role of being the go to guy for this Tennessee team.

Zac’s Elite 8

1. Gonzaga (19-2)

2. Auburn (22-1)

3. Kentucky (19-4)

4. Arizona (20-2)

5. Purdue (20-3)

6. Duke (19-4)

7. Illinois (17-5)

8. Houston (20-2)

Mid Major Top 10

1. Murray State (22-2)

2. Wyoming (19-3)

3. St. Marys (19-4)
4. Boise State (18-5)

5. Colorado State (17-3)

6. South Dakota State (21-4)

7. Loyola Chicago (18-4)

8. Iona (19-4)

9. Ohio (19-3)

10. San Diego State (13-6)

Weekly Awards

Team of the Week: Wyoming

Player of the Week: Jared Bynum (Providence)

Coach of the Week:  Brad Underwood

Flop of the Week:  North Carolina