Best and worst of the first quarter of the college hoops season
Hard as it may be to believe, the first quarter of college basketball’s regular season is already complete. Below is a look at the players and teams who have exceeded expectations so far and those who have fallen short.
PLAYER WHO SHINED IN THE SPOTLIGHT
Fueled by the desire to forge a legacy rivaling that of the Michigan State legends he grew up idolizing, Lansing native Denzel Valentine has evolved into a surprise national player of the year candidate this season. The versatile 6-foot-5 senior is averaging 18.6 points, 8.5 rebounds and 7.2 assists, propelling the Spartans to an 11-0 record and the No. 1 spot in the AP Top 25. Valentine has saved some of his best performances for Michigan State’s highest-profile games. He tallied triple-doubles against both Kansas and Boston College, scored 25 against Louisville and torched Boise State for a career-high 32 points.
PLAYER WHO SHRANK IN THE SPOTLIGHT
Skal Labissiere has shown occasional glimpses of the athleticism and skill that made him one of the Class of 2015’s top two prospects, but the 6-foot-11 freshman has been underwhelming against decent competition. In the three games Kentucky has played against high-major opponents, Labissiere has averaged a mere 4.3 points and 1.7 rebounds. More telling, Labissiere didn’t play more than 16 minutes in any of those games because he wasn’t tough or physical enough for John Calipari to keep him on the floor. Labissiere’s biggest issue is that he hasn’t shown enough strength or fight to hold his position defending the post or blocking out on the defensive glass. He also has frequently gotten caught out of position on help defense as well.
CONFERENCE THAT EXCELLED
The notion that Villanova was the Big East‘s only Top 25 team has proven to be way off base. Tenth-ranked Xavier is one of eight remaining unbeaten teams in the country and has victories over Cincinnati, Michigan, Dayton, Alabama and USC. Fourteenth-ranked Providence is off to an impressive 8-1 start because Ben Bentil, Rodney Bullock and others have formed a strong supporting cast around Kris Dunn. Seventeenth-ranked Butler is also 8-1 and is scoring at a pace it never has before. Don’t count out Georgetown, Marquette or Seton Hall either, all of which have rebounded nicely the past few weeks after sustaining a bad early loss.
CONFERENCE THAT GOT EXPOSED
The RPI is a flawed tool that’s even more scattershot this early in the season, but it says something about the state of the WCC that it’s 18th right now, just between the mighty Southern and Sun Belt conferences. That’s brutal for a league that is accustomed to putting two or three teams into the NCAA tournament every season. The WCC’s sudden decline starts at the top, where poor guard play has sent Gonzaga tumbling out of the AP Top 25 after back-to-back home losses to Arizona and UCLA. BYU has a weakened offense, three early losses and no noteworthy wins so far. Pepperdine has climbed above .500 but hasn’t taken the leap many anticipated. The lone bright spot has been Saint Mary’s 6-1 start, but LMU, Portland, Santa Clara, San Diego and San Francisco are each 200 or below in the latest KenPom rankings.
FOUR WHO HAVE SURPRISED
1. XAVIER (10-0): Thought to be a second-tier Big East team chasing Villanova and Georgetown, Xavier has instead surged into the top 10 by defeating KenPom top 50 opponents Michigan, Cincinnati, Dayton and USC. The Musketeers have a loaded frontcourt, a rising NBA prospect at point guard and wings who can defend and knock down outside shots.
2. MIAMI (8-1): The Hurricanes were the revelation of the Thanksgiving week tournaments, destroying Mississippi State, Utah and Butler en route to the Puerto Rico Tip-Off championship. Sheldon McClellan is off to a brilliant start shooting the ball, Angel Rodriguez has displayed much better shot selection and Miami has size, length and depth all over the floor.
3. PROVIDENCE (10-1): Kris Dunn has been everything Providence could have hoped during the opening month of the season, but he’s not the reason the Friars have been better than anticipated. They’ve beaten the likes of Arizona, Rhode Island and Illinois because Ben Bentil has emerged as an elite interior scorer and Rodney Bullock has become a capable third scorer.
4. LOUISVILLE (7-1): The Cardinals don’t have any noteworthy wins yet, but they proved themselves better than anticipated in a four-point road loss at top-ranked Michigan State. Despite losing 82 percent of its scoring from last season’s 27-win Elite Eight team, Louisville has reloaded behind transfers Damion Lee and Trey Lewis and a young frontcourt that controls the glass.
FOUR WHO HAVE DISAPPOINTED
1. LSU (4-4): The Tigers have the nation’s most talented freshman, a second McDonald’s All-American and an experienced supporting cast, but you’d never know it from their early results. Indifferent defense, poor rebounding and mediocre outside shooting and has doomed them to four early losses against the likes of Charleston, Houston, NC State and Marquette.
2. WISCONSIN (6-5): It was inevitable that Wisconsin was going to take a step backward after losing five of its top seven players from last year’s national runner-up, but the dropoff has been steeper than expected. Unable to score as efficiently as previous seasons, the Badgers have lost five times already this season including home upsets at the hands of Western Illinois, Milwaukee and rival Marquette.
3. OHIO STATE: (4-5): Thad Matta’s streak of 15 straight 20-win seasons is in serious jeopardy with the Buckeyes struggling to replace D’Angelo Russell and five seniors who departed from last year’s NCAA tournament team. Too many turnovers and too few baskets from a youthful backcourt has Ohio State in a big early hole after losses to Texas Arlington, Louisiana Tech, Memphis, UConn and Virginia.
4. GONZAGA (6-3): A preseason top 10 team, Gonzaga has fallen out of the AP Top 25 after back-to-back home losses to Arizona and UCLA. Neither of those are terrible losses, but it would help the Zags immensely if its backcourt could knock down open threes and take better care of the ball. The return of 7-foot center Przemek Karnowski from back spasms would certainly be nice too.
BIGGEST UPSET
Why is Radford’s stunning double-overtime victory at Georgetown my choice? Check out the fortunes of both teams since that Nov. 14 matchup. The Hoyas (6-3) have rebounded from that 82-80 loss to defeat Wisconsin and Syracuse and push Maryland and Duke to the final minute. The Highlanders (6-5) have fallen to 200th in the KenPom rankings with uninspiring losses to Siena, James Madison, Coastal Carolina and Virginia Tech.
BEST BUZZER BEATER
In a year when we’ve already had game-winning dunks and game-winning threes, it’s a simple mid-range jump shot that’s my choice. When a long rebound went straight to Texas guard Javan Felix on Saturday, he grabbed it and buried a 16 footer as the buzzer sounded to lift the Longhorns to an 84-82 victory over third-ranked North Carolina. The shot was meaningful because it delivered Shaka Smart his first signature win as head coach at Texas. It also lifted the Longhorns back into the national conversation after three early losses.
BEST GAME
The duel between Marcus Paige and Melo Trimble makes North Carolina’s 89-81 victory over Maryland my choice. You had two top 10 teams, a stirring second-half comeback and two elite guards at the top of their games. Trimble led the Terps back from a 13-point deficit by decimating the Tar Heels off the dribble, scoring 23 points and dishing out 12 assists. Paige steadied his team in his first game back from a broken hand, scoring most of his 20 points after Maryland had stormed back into the lead.
BEST DUNK
With his team sleepwalking through the first half against Texas Arlington on Dec. 1, Texas guard Kerwin Roach found a way to awaken the Longhorns. The 6-foot-4 freshman drove the length of the floor and dunked on Jorge Bilbao with such fury that even the opposing bench couldn’t help but react. The lift that Roach’s slam provided helped Texas roar back from a double-digit first-half deficit and regain the lead midway through the second half. Two free throws by Texas Arlington’s Kevin Hervey eventually forced overtime, but the Longhorns escaped with an 80-75 victory.
WORST GAFFE
Connecticut had rallied to within three late in its matchup with Maryland when the Huskies’ own coach short-circuited his team’s comeback bid. Kevin Ollie got so upset with a foul called on guard Jalen Adams that he swept a stack of papers off the scorer’s table and onto the court, resulting in a costly game-changing technical foul. The score was 67-64 at the time of the technical, but Melo Trimble’s ensuing free throws helped Maryland pull away for a 76-66 win. Ollie was surprisingly unapologetic about the technical after the game. “I don’t think it changed [momentum],” he said. “Melo was going to the foul line anyway.”
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Jeff Eisenberg is the editor of The Dagger on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter!
