Hello and welcome to Midweek Madness! This is The Floor Slap’s weekly CBB article from our CBB expert, Jordan Beckley… Hi, that’s me. Every Thursday, I will be recapping the week that was, the weekend ahead and doing so in a variety of recurring segments and superlatives. So, follow us (@thefloorslap) and have our site bookmarked to make sure you don’t miss a moment of the Madness all season long!
by Jordan Beckley
The Iso
Time to clear out and go 1 on 1 on this week’s Isolated Team.
Not everybody left Feast Week feeling good about their team.
Sure, Purdue, Wisconsin and Ohio State fans left happy (at least in Basketball). But, Minnesota got pummeled by San Francisco, Michigan is now 1-3 since I said they could finish in the top 4, and Penn State lost all three of their games in the ESPN Invitational.
The Nittany Lions are this week’s Iso team. A frustrating showing last week has me worried about Coach Rhoades and Penn State.
The Week started well with Penn State fighting tooth and nail with Texas A&M. It was back and forth for the first 15 minutes of gametime before the Aggies took the lead for good. In the second half, Wade Taylor IV took over and made sure Penn State never was within striking distance.
It was a solid outing for a team expected to lose. Kanye Clary and Ace Baldwin played admirably against one of the best backcourts in the nation. North Carolina transfer Puff Johnson had a nice game scoring 15 points in his first big performance as he recovers to full strength. Still, the Nittany Lions gave up 89 points. You can’t win many games giving up that many points.
The Nittany Lions went on to play Butler in what you would expect to be a fairly even contest. It was a good game for the first half as the teams swapped leads and Butler was up 3 at half. Then in the second half… the Bulldogs pulled away and finished with a 88-78 win.
Again, Penn State couldn’t stop Butler on any level. Butler had a balanced scoring effort with 22 2-point FGs, 9 threes and 17 free throws lead by Michigan State transfer Pierre Brooks’ 26 points. Kanye Clary was great with 28 points but took 22 shots and 0 free throws to get there. The Nittany Lions took 71 shots as a team!
Finally, Penn State ended a rough weekend with Mike Rhoades coaching against his former school VCU. You can’t lose this one. They did lose this one.
The Rams got revenge scoring 86 points on their former coach going 54% from 2, 53% from 3 and making 22 free throws. Kanye Clary left early in the game with a hand injury and didn’t return. So, Ace Baldwin stepped up but wasn’t enough by himself to beat some of his old teammates.
Penn State lost three straight to finish in last place in their invitational. What went wrong?
Obviously the defense isn’t good enough.
If you look at the defensive numbers on sportsreference they aren’t that bad, but Penn State beat up on four of the worst teams in CBB to start the year. In the tournament, the Nittany Lions got exposed against real teams. KenPom’s adjusted defense has Penn State as the 111th ranked defense on an adjusted scale.
Part of the problem of the defense is that the Nittany Lions have no presence down low.
Qudus Wahab is just not a good big. Sophomore Demetrius Lilley has not made a jump. Miami transfer Favour Aire is out with a hand injury. There isn’t anybody to go to on offense down low or to scare opponents on defense.
The guard play hasn’t been good enough.
Kanye Clary has been awesome. It is hard to say the same thing about the rest of the team. UNC transfer D’Marco Dunn did okay with Clary out against VCU but ultimately has been a disappointment so far. Ace Baldwin has been fine, but certainly not a fringe All-Conference player.
The poor guard play shines through with the assist numbers. Averaging 10 a game, Penn State is 346th in the country in assists. Baldwin and Clary have been okay as scorers, but miserable as playmakers. For reference those two are the best “passers” on the team and they have an assist % on par with Malik Hall.
One random fun stat for you the reader: Penn State shoots the 5th most shots per game in the Big Ten and makes the 12th most of them while only being 11th in rebounding. That efficiency is just as bad from deep with the 3rd most threes shot and 10th most made.
Overall, Penn State doesn’t pass well, rebound well, block well, or shoot well. Is that fixable?
Not really. All indicators point to Penn State being in competition with Minnesota for worst team in the Big Ten.
You can hope that it’s a small sample size. Maybe Puff Johnson makes a leap once fully healthy. Maybe Favour Aire brings a new dimension when he returns. Maybe in Big Ten play Clary is forced to look for teammates more.
That’s a lot of maybes.
I was optimistic for Penn State to start the year. After a dismal first taste in the ESPN invitational, Nittany Lions fans should brace for a lost year.
The Big 3
3 things I noticed in the world of CBB. Could be a big win, a big performance, a trend in the sport, a coach who made a dumb face on camera, really anything I want to talk about.
1. RIP the ACC Big Ten Challenge
This week should have been the ACC Big Ten Challenge.
Instead, we got the first ever ACC SEC challenge. Don’t get me wrong there are plenty of good matchups to be excited to watch. Shoutout to Kentucky over Miami, North Carolina over Tennessee, Arkansas over Duke and Virginia over Texas A&M.
Still, I miss the ACC Big Ten Challenge. As a midwesterner, I actually want both the ACC and SEC to fail miserably in the competition. I wish I could have a rooting interest. It was fun to blindly root for the Big Ten super hard for two days and then go back to hating the other teams by Friday.
The Challenge ended in a 7-7 tie so did anybody win? Not really.
2. Ohio State making a statement
The Basketbucks made a statement last week by winning the Emerald Coast Classic. Ohio State first beat No. 17 Alabama by scoring 92 points against them. The Buckeyes followed that up with a win against Santa Clara by a whopping 30 points to win the Emerald Title. For reference, Santa Clara has been a solid program putting Jalen Williams and Brandin Podziemski in the NBA the past two years.
Roddy Gayle is awesome and becoming a real playmaker. Jamison Battle is fitting right in. More on Bruce Thornton later, but he’s playing out of his mind. Plus, there is still room for growth for Ohio State with all the youth still not at their peak.
Did the Alabama win lose some shine with Clemson beating the Crimson Tide on Wednesday? Sure, but still Ohio State showed they aren’t pushovers this year this past week at the minimum. At the maximum they could be players to finish near the top of the Big Ten again.
3. The Big 12 is Loaded, again
One big takeaway from Feast Week Weekend — Is it just called Feast Weekend? — anyways, the Big 12 is more than just Kansas this year.
We knew Texas, Baylor and Houston would be good too. We didn’t know BYU and Oklahoma would be as good as they are.
BYU and Oklahoma have stormed into the AP Poll after impressive showings last week bringing the Big 12 to six teams ranked in the Top 25 in this week’s release.
BYU is undefeated with wins over NC State, Arizona State and San Diego State. Oklahoma meanwhile won the … Rady Children’s Invitational? Did I get that right? Regardless of the name of the MTE, Oklahoma is undefeated and beat Iowa and USC this past week.
Add in competitive looking programs in Texas Tech, Kansas State, Iowa State and Cincinnati and you get why I’m saying the Big 12 is so loaded.
Good Game Bad Game
Loosely defined as a weekly game where I name one (or more) good game and bad game from a player, coach, ref, mascot, towel boy, jumbotron operator or anybody in CBB.
Good Game: Kel’el Ware, Eric Dixon, LJ Cryer
Indiana might not be an awesome team, but Kel’el Ware has been awesome for the Hoosiers. The Oregon transfer has blossomed since coming to Bloomington. If you take away Ware’s game against Donovan Clingan and UConn, he is averaging 19 ppg on 72.5% shooting and 9 rpg and 2 bpg. Ware was clinical going 12-13 for 28 points, 8 reb, 2blks in the win against Harvard. The top 3 rated transfer and former top 10 recruit is living up to his ranking.
So, Eric Dixon was awesome against North Carolina scoring 30+ points en route to a big win and eventually winning the Battle 4 Atlantis. This section was supposed to be about Villanova looking good and then they went and lost to St. Joes yesterday. So now they are 0-2 against Pennsylvania rivals. Villanova is confusing with wins over Maryland, UNC, and Memphis, while also losing to Penn and St. Joes. That’s what you get trying to make conclusions on nonconference college basketball.
Final good game is for LJ Cryer succeeding at Houston. The Baylor transfer is flourishing as the lead guy under Kelvin Sampson. Cryer has stepped into the Marcus Sasser role scoring 17ppg and the Cougars haven’t missed a beat. Even with Cryer playing heavy minutes, the Cougars are still the number one KenPom defense and are ranked no. 1 overall even over Purdue. Houston’s toughest game has been Dayton so far, but Cryer and the Cougs have shown the signs that they are ready to compete with Kansas for the Big 12 title.
Bad Game: Jamie Kaiser, Trey Alexander, Nimari Burnett
Jamie Kaiser had a bad game against South Alabama. It’s reductive to say that Kaiser has one job as a freshman… but he kind of is meant to do one thing; shoot. Kaiser went 0-5 against South Alabama and in a larger point was 3-23 (13%) after that game on the year. Maryland left that game shooting 21.4% from deep good for 360th out of 363 teams.
Maryland and Kaiser improved against Rider. The Freshmen hit 2 of his 3 attempts and the Terps hit a season high 8 threes on 40% shooting on the way to another season high of 103 points. Hopefully, it is a sign of better things to come as Kevin Willard needs Kaiser to be the shooter he was recruited to be.
Trey Alexander had a bad game against Colorado State. Alexander went 1-17 from the field and 0-5 from beyond the arc in a blowout loss to the Rams. This isn’t as much about him as it is how weird it was that this Creighton team only put up 48 points against now ranked 20th Colorado State. Baylor Scheierman also had a bad game going 4-17 (3-10 from 3) and the Bluejays were never within single digits in the second half of Niko Medved’s team. Alexander, Scheierman and Creighton should be fine, it is just odd a team who scored 80-105 points in their first 5 games could be held to below 50 points with less than 10 turnovers.
Nimari Burnett is unfortunately the guy I will pick on for Michigan’s poor performance in Atlantis. Michigan lost a tough one to Memphis, barely beat a meh Stanford team (while still giving up 78 points), and got undressed by Texas Tech 57-73. Burnett scored 2 points on 1-10 shooting with 0-4 from 3 and 0-1 from the line. Michigan’s defense has not been good enough to win against good teams. Part of the blame has to be on Burnett and Williams who have not been the stoppers they need next to Dug McDaniel.
Weekend Wagers
I preview the biggest games in the weekend slate and give my moneyline picks. For picks ATS follow us on X.
The weekend ahead has an awesome slate of games including the Big Ten tipoff on Friday, rivalry matchups and a top 5 UConn visiting top 5 Kansas in Phog Allen.
Maryland +2.5 at Indiana O137.5
- Is this a loser leaves town game in December?
- No, but the fans for the loser of this game (especially if it is IU at home) will not be excited for the next 19 Big Ten games.
- Neither of these teams have figured out how to score and specifically neither can make threes.
- Monitor the under for this game. If it is higher than 134.5 take the under.
- This game will be fascinating too to see who guards Malik Reneau on Maryland. Could it be the revenge game for Jordan Geronimo?
- I personally think that Kel’el Ware will be a difference maker. Ware vs. Julian Reese is a poppy matchup of versatile centers.
- Indiana wins ugly 69-63
Purdue -8.5 at Northwestern O/U: 137.5
- The last time we saw these two play fans were storming the court at Welsh-Ryan Arena
- This will be a fun matchup.
- Lance Jones will get his first real Big Ten test having to guard Boo Buie.
- Brooks Barnhizer will have another opportunity to make the team in his backyard regret not recruiting him.
- Matt Nicholson is one of the few guys that can match the bulk of Zach Edey.
- Still, Northwestern isn’t good enough to win this time.
- I like Purdue 75 Northwestern 68 in an over and a cover after Purdue misses free throws late.
UConn +2.5 at Kansas O/U 147.5
- There aren’t enough words for me to use to explain how much more I like UConn than Kansas
- I don’t care that its Phog Allen.
- If I told you that UConn had two All-American’s by the end of the year that you would have a tough time deciding between Tristen Newton, Alex Karaban, Donovan Clingan or a surprise in Stephon Castle tells you what you need to know about the Huskies.
- I love UConn ML at +126.
- I am a Kansas hater officially this year. Is that correlated to Hunter Dickinson’s arrival? Who’s to say.
Marquette at Wisconsin
- The battle for Wisconsin happens this Saturday at 12:30 EST
- Last year the Badgers got the better of the Golden Eagles.
- I can’t imagine it happens again this year.
- Marquette already beat a similar level Big Ten on the road in Illinois
- Tyler Kolek, Oso Ighodaro and Kam Jones are just too good.
- Still, this game could be a good measuring stick for how this Wisconsin team will play at home against the Purdues, Illinois, and Michigan States of the world.
Michigan at Oregon
- Loser leaves town game?
- Michigan travels to Nike Headquarters, I mean Matthew Knight Arena in a preview of a future Big Ten matchup.
- Both had disappointing showings in their MTE and need a win.
- Oregon lost to Santa Clara (see I told you they are respectable) and Alabama.
- The Ducks gave up 88 and 99 points in those games. Man those rims at the Emerald Coast Classic must be friendly.
- Michigan’s defense has been just as terrible.
- I wouldn’t be shocked if this total is around 165. Take the over. Do it.
- Oregon wins by 6 to 9 points.
- BTW these teams are literally right next to each other in KenPom.
Creighton at Nebraska
- Creighton and Nebraska are meeting for the 58th time this Sunday
- Last year, inexplicably Nebraska beat a Top rated Bluejay team in the middle of what would be a six game slide
- This year Creighton travels to the Huskers at Pinnacle Bank Arena.
- Creighton already laid one egg against Colorado State. Could they do it again?
- Can an undefeated Nebraska upset a ranked Creighton team again?
- My money is on no, but I do think this will be a closer game.
Award Winning Wings
A rotating selection of made up superlatives and awards. Named fondly after how every restaurant has ‘award winning wings’
The “Who the hell voted for them?” Award
One of the most fun aspects of the AP Poll is to scroll past all the teams actually ranked and see who barely missed the cut. For fans of mid-majors or schools like Northwestern and Rutgers, you live in the “Others receiving votes” section.
Occasionally, you scroll thru who was close to making the Top 25 and you find some weird votes that make you say, “Who the hell voted for them?” This week’s recipient of that Award is Chris Beard and Ole Miss who somehow received 5 votes.
The Rebels are indeed undefeated, but here is what Ole Miss has done the past three games:
- One point win over Detroit-Mercy
- Three point win over Sam Houston
- One point win over Temple
Ole Miss is 126th in KenPom as of Monday morning. How did anybody vote for them to be ranked? Let alone how did they get 5 total points? Either a local voter put them 22nd or multiple people voted for them to be ranked!
For reference, Ole Miss received one fewer vote than UVA (48 in KenPom on Monday morning) and the team that just beat up UVA, Wisconsin, didn’t receive any votes!
I don’t care that the Rebels beat NC State by twenty on Tuesday either. This poll was voted on before that game. That doesn’t make the voters justified!
AP Poll people release the votes!
The “I See You” Award
I am not sure I have written about Northwestern yet this year. So this week’s I See You Award goes to Boo Buie.
If you needed a reminder Buie is still one of the best Big Ten guards and is likely a first teamer again. He is averaging the same numbers as last year just with better shooting numbers. That increased efficiency has bumped him up to 18.5 ppg and has been good enough for Northwestern to be 5-1 so far.
We still see you Mr. Buie and I am officially starting the lobbying campaign to get you on the All-Name teams because it has been one of the bigger snubs in recent memory. Keep the play up and the Wildcats won’t be snubbed either on Selection Sunday.
Player of the Week
After a pair of great games this past weekend and another on Wednesday, Bruce Thornton is my player of the week. Thornton powered Ohio State to win the Emerald Coast classic with wins over no. 17 Alabama and Santa Clara. The Buckeyes scored 178 points in those two games (89ppg average if you’re bad at math) behind the point play of Thornton. The Sophomore lived at the free throw line against the Crimson Tide scoring 13 of his 29 points from the charity stripe.
Coach of the Week
I’m going to give Greg Gard some flowers here. Nobody had an amazing week since I last wrote with a bunch of cupcakes in the void of the ACC Big Ten Challenge, so this will be more rewarding the past two weeks of play.
Gard has been navigating a lot of difficult personnel decisions this year, and I think he’s done a pretty good job.
The traditional earn-your-minutes behind the established guys long play of player development might be a thing of the past. A long running strategy from Bo Ryan to Gard is being sacrificed as new guys like AJ Storr, a transfer, and John Blackwell, a freshman, are earning minutes deservedly from their play over established guys.
Gard seems to be pushing the right buttons and balancing older guys like Tyler Wahl and Chucky Hepburn and new entrants like Blackwell and Storr. What it has lead to is a balanced attack that might not be elite, but is hard to defend when you don’t know what matchup the Badgers will exploit or who will be hot.
Bonus points for Steven Crowl playing as confidently as I’ve seen him play. Congrats Greg Gard for winning coach of the week.
Ethan Morton 3 Point Tracker
It is a tough week for the Morton Salt company. Ethan Morton missed his only three against Texas Southern and missed both his free throw attempts.
Do the students still get a free chicken sandwhich if Morton or Trey Kaufman-Renn miss both their free throws?
Morton is now 2-4 on the season. His red hot start of 2-2 has cooled off by going 0-2 since. With Morton’s minutes and shot selection this math will not be getting that complex this season lol.
Did Louisville win a game this week?
Yes, Louisville won a game this week! It might have taken overtime, Skyy Clark to score 29 points, and for New Mexico State to foul out 6 players and finish the game with 4 players… but yes the Cardinals won!
Seriously, we are three weeks in and I don’t think it gets stranger than winning 90-84 in overtime against a school that shut down it’s basketball program for murder last year.
But wait there’s more!
In a battle for the city of Louisville, the Cardinals slugged their way to beat Bellarmine 73-68 on Wednesday. Kenny Payne’s team was down 5 at half and had to fight to win, but they sure did win.
Now for a sad question Louisville fans. Was this past week the best week of the Kenny Payne era? It really might be and wow somehow he is still the Head Coach for this program.
No Explanation Power Rankings
I am just the humble mouthpiece for the No Explanation College Basketball Committee, who release their weekly Big Ten Rankings to me. I provide their rankings with… no explanation.
With the Big Ten tipping off Friday night, surely the committee has fully figured out the power rankings from the handful of nonconference games. You can’t expect any movement because they know exactly how the season will play out!
- Purdue
- Illinois
- Michigan State
- Wisconsin
- Ohio State
- Northwestern
- Iowa
- Indiana
- Nebraska
- Michigan
- Maryland
- Rutgers
- Penn State
- Minnesota
We will be back next week with full analysis of the early Big Ten games and an ISO on a certain team in the Great Lakes region!