Now that they’re hailing the victors in Ann Arbor, we welcome back those who have been too engrossed with Jim Harbaugh and Nick Saban and the Famous Idaho Potato Bowl to pay much attention to college basketball.
By the way, do you realize the last undisputed national football championship for Michigan, the sport’s all-time winningest program, came when the U.S. President was Harry Truman? Imagine if they had to wait that long at Kansas or Kentucky to cut down nets. Anyway, for some, the college basketball season doesn’t begin until Selection Sunday. But for many of you, it starts the day after all the confetti is swept up at the College Football Playoff title game.
So if you’re wondering what you’ve missed so far…
We can report that the big guy at Purdue is still 7’4, which means Zach Edey is still the most unique weapon in the game and has piled up such amazing numbers as owning nine more blocked shots than personal fouls. And since hack-a-Zach is now a recognized defensive strategy, he has shot only 32 fewer free throws than the entire Hofstra team.
Also, the Boilermakers are No. 1 again and 5-0 against opponents ranked in the top 11 of the Associated Press poll, picking off three of them in three days in Maui. To which many outsiders respond, “Great! Get back to us in March when they play someone like Fairleigh Dickinson.”
? Purdue wins 2023 Maui Invitational
We can report that Houston hasn’t lost a game yet and Detroit Mercy — only 10 months removed from Antoine Davis missing Pete Maravich’s all-time NCAA career scoring record by three points — hasn’t won one. Houston still puts out the stiffest defense in the land, holding opponents under 20 points in a half nine times so far, and outscoring the other side 310-105 in points off turnovers. The Cougars announced their arrival in the Big 12 with a 34-point shellacking of West Virginia.
Houston Cougars guard Emanuel Sharp (21) reacts after making a basket during the first half against the Louisiana Monroe Warhawks at Fertitta Center.
We can report that the bluebloods are on the march to March. Kansas, for example. just won its 33rd consecutive conference opener, though it took 26 lead changes and a late Hunter Dickinson basket against TCU to do it.
Connecticut ran its double-digit-margin non-conference winning streak to a remarkable 24 games before bumping into Kansas. The Huskies are now 13-2 and finding ways to win, even with key player Donovan Clingan out for a while. So, why shouldn’t they be thinking repeat?
Kentucky is back in the top 10 with a rollicking offense that has hit 81 or more points in 12 of its first 13 games, something not done in Lexington in 29 years and is averaging only 15 seconds a possession. As any Big Blue Nation citizen knows, the Wildcats were picked to finish fourth in the SEC.
All seems well on Tobacco Road. North Carolina has climbed from preseason No. 19 to No. 7 while in the middle of a stretch with one home game in 41 days. You’re just in time to see the Tar Heels play six conference road games in January, something they haven’t done since 1952. Duke endured a few stumbles — including only its second non-conference loss in a non-pandemic Durham Indoor Stadium in 24 years, to Arizona — but has won six in a row.
Brothers don’t shake hands… brothers gotta hug ?@Harrisoniingram | @ariidavis_ pic.twitter.com/3pTv9MHJiT
— Carolina Basketball (@UNC_Basketball) January 6, 2024
It’s possible all five of those heavyweights could be in the same top 10 soon. This time last season, Kentucky and North Carolina were unranked and Duke was barely still in the poll. So blue is in.
But not everywhere.
See the smoke plum rising in the West? That’s from Pauley Pavilion, where UCLA is not only 6-9 but has lost four consecutive home games. That includes Cal State Northridge, California — a team that came in having lost 19 Pac-12 contests in a row — and 59-53 to Stanford, the fewest points the Bruins have scored against the Cardinal in Pauley in 51 years. To put a four-game home losing streak into UCLA historical perspective, John Wooden lost two games in Pauley Pavilion in 10 years. A disturbed Mick Cronin was addressing his players so long after the Cal loss, assistant Rod Palmer finally appeared in the post-game media conference. “I don’t know how long he’s going to be,” Palmer said, “so I’m here instead.”
Villanova is tied for the lead in the Big East but somehow finished last in Philadelphia’s inaugural Big 5 Classic.
Michigan State started the season by losing in overtime to James Madison, putting a blot on Tom Izzo’s 74-0 home record in November. There have been ups and downs since for the Spartans, who are 1-3 in early Big Ten play and just lost to Northwestern for the third time in a row. That hadn’t happened since 1962. Still, the 9-6 Spartans are No. 28 in the latest NCAA NET rankings, the most losses for any team in the top 49.
? No. 4 Michigan State stunned by James Madison
Then there’s Virginia, among the nation’s leaders in scoring defense as is custom. But something odd is afoot for the Cavaliers. They’re 11-4 and No. 2 in the country in points allowed but have been drubbed 65-41 by Wisconsin, 77-54 by Memphis, 76-54 by Notre Dame, and 76-60 by North Carolina State. Only three of their 15 games have been decided by single digits while 10 have been won or lost by at least 22 points. It’s the Virginia Feast or Famines.
We can report that college basketball has been up to its usual mischief, giving one day and taking back another.
Purdue was No. 1 going to Northwestern, just like last year. The Wildcats upset the Boilermakers, just like last year, the first unranked team to ever knock off the same Associated Press No. 1 opponent at home in consecutive seasons. That got Purdue expunged from the top spot — although the Boilermakers wouldn’t be gone long — and Northwestern was rewarded with a No. 25 spot in the next AP poll. Twelve days later on the same court, they took down No. 1, the Wildcats lost 75-73 to Chicago State, a team that arrived at Welsh-Ryan Arena 0-15 all-time against Northwestern, 0-39 against ranked opponents and 0-64 against current members of the Big Ten.
Or this: On the same weekend in late December, Florida Atlantic took out No. 4 Arizona in two overtimes to move to No. 7 in the AP poll while Florida Gulf Coast needed overtime to get past NAIA Florida Memorial and improve its record to 5-9. When they met the next weekend, Florida Gulf Coast won, of course, 72-68.
GAME OF THE SEASON? ?
No. 14 Florida Atlantic outlasts No. 4 Arizona in a double overtime THRILLER ? pic.twitter.com/ZjHZewiKII
— NCAA March Madness (@MarchMadnessMBB) December 23, 2023
We can report the pool of mid-major upstarts — the trouble-makers everyone loves in March — has already produced some encouraging moments.
Three days after stunning Michigan State in East Lansing, James Madison trailed at Kent State 89-84 with only 3.8 seconds left. That’s when Noah Freidel hit a 3-pointer, and after a Kent State offensive foul, added a layup at the buzzer. Five points in 3.8 seconds to tie. Positively Reggie Miller-ish. The Dukes eventually won 113-108 in two overtimes and became the first Division I team in 30 years to begin the season with back-to-back OT wins on the road. Now they’re 14-1 and seemingly the team to beat in the Sun Belt.
Florida Atlantic, keeping the mojo going from last spring’s Final Four run, shocked Arizona for its first win ever over a top-10 team and also Texas A&M. Alas, the Owls also lost to Bryant, Florida Gulf Coast and Charlotte. “What we’ve learned,” coach Dusty May said,” is that our highs are very high and our lows are relatively low.”
You remember Princeton as a surprise guest in last March’s Sweet 16? The Tigers haven’t gone anywhere, blasting off with a 9-0 start. The last time they did that was 104 years ago. The first seven victories came in seven different venues.
Colorado State routed No. 8 Creighton by 21 points, its first win over a top-10 foe in 40 years, and then quickly added Colorado and Washington to its Power 5 victims list. The Rams did lose at Utah State, but the Aggies are 14-1, just like Nevada, who won by 13 points over the same TCU team that took Kansas to the wire. New Mexico is 13-2 just like Colorado State. In other words, the Mountain West has a nest of highly dangerous potential opponents for the NCAA tournament, but we should already know that after watching San Diego State get to the championship game last April.
And we can also report that there has been the usual flurry of the dramatic, the inexplicable, the unique.
The most publicized four-point performance of the season came on Dec. 10. That was from Bronny James making his USC debut after recovering from a scary cardiac episode, with proud papa LeBron in the stands. It was a grand night, except the Trojans lost in overtime to Long Beach State.
Monmouth beat West Virginia 73-65 with 30 points from Xander Rice, a graduate transfer from Bucknell playing his second game for his father King Rice.
Tight games with big scores did not necessarily mean riveting basketball. Wofford edged High Point 99-98 in a slog that had 84 free throws. Oakland’s 100-95 win over Milwaukee had 54 free throws — in the second half.
Syracuse trailed Colgate by 24 points in the second half but won.
SYRACUSE MOUNTS HUGE COMEBACK ?
The Orange overcome a 24-point deficit to defeat Colgate 79-75 ? pic.twitter.com/MPeoDPuqIH
— NCAA March Madness (@MarchMadnessMBB) November 15, 2023
UNC Greensboro had never beaten an SEC team or a ranked opponent but killed two birds with one win, 78-72 at Arkansas. Eric Musselman had been 36-0 in Bud Walton Arena against non-conference teams, but this wasn’t his only headache at home. Just last weekend the Hogs were blown away by Auburn 83-51, their worst loss in the three-decade history of the place.
Florida State won its 14th consecutive overtime game in an NCAA record streak that goes back to 2018 but is 7-6 on nights the play lasts only 40 minutes. Kansas State has already won four overtime games — including three in eight days — making Jerome Tang 9-0 in OT as Kansas State’s coach.
Kentucky’s climb in the rankings was momentarily delayed when UNC Wilmington barged into Rupp Arena and stunned the Wildcats 80-73. Until that day, the Seahawks had been 1-39 against ranked opponents and 0-29 on the road.
Memphis has become drama kings, reeling off eight wins in a row for Penny Hardaway, with six of the victories by 2, 2, 3, 3, 5 points in overtime and 6. The last two games have been won by Jahvon Quinerly 3-pointers in the last four seconds at nearly the same left-wing spot on the floor.
The SWAC was no pastry tray for the SEC. Jackson State was one of 22 teams still without a victory when it took its 0-5 record to Missouri for its sixth road game in 14 days and four different states. The Tigers beat their SEC host with a winning basket in the last five seconds. Two weeks later, Southern was 1-6 and playing at No. 21 Mississippi State. The Jaguars won 60-59.
The early leader for the victory-vanishes-into-thin-air award has to be Yale, who led Vermont by five points with one second left. And lost. Vermont layup at 0.6 seconds, then a Yale offensive foul trying to get the ball inbounds, then a Vermont four-point play with 0.3 seconds left. You couldn’t make that up.
Clemson and South Carolina have played 173 games, and this year was the first time the state neighbors came into the meeting both 7-0. Clemson rallied from 11 points down to win 72-67, so far South Carolina’s only defeat.
Seattle had dropped 18 games in a row to crosstown Washington going back to 1978, so imagine the expectation in the Redhawks section in December when they pulled ahead by 16 points. Sorry. The Huskies rallied to win 100-99 in two overtimes. Seattle led for 40:25.
Florida beat Michigan 106-101 in two overtimes as the Wolverines went into Iron Man mode. All five Michigan starters played at least 44:29 and Florida’s gap in bench points was 43-3. The Wolverines had been 104-5 when scoring 100 and not lost such a game in nearly 34 years.
The world wasn’t exactly watching, but Fordham and George Washington put on one of the best shows of the year when Fordham hit 19 3-pointers and finally won 119-113 in three overtimes. There were 24 lead changes, 18 ties and George Washington had two players score more than 30 points but still lost.
Fairfield ran by Siena 93-69 with 40 points from Brycen Goodine, tied for the third-highest individual scoring game of the season so far. And he didn’t even start.
Baylor rolled over Gardner-Webb 77-62 despite going 0-for-9 in 3-pointers. That was the first time in 1,033 games the Bears did not make at least one. But fear not, UNLV’s streak is still alive and well, the Rebels scoring from behind the arc in all 1,206 games since the 3-pointer was introduced in 1986. Only one other Division I program can say it’s never had a 3-pointless game. You’d never guess. Princeton.
There have been only 19 triple-doubles in the entire nation all season but Tulane’s Kevin Cross had two in back-to-back games, the first Division I man to do that in 15 years.
So, a lot of basketball was played while the football guys with winged helmets were on their journey. But not to worry, you’re here in time for the good part.