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
Welcome back to Midweek Madness!
I took a little winter break last week, well because so did the good college basketball games. But we are back this week as there is a return to Big Ten play. We have an 11 week sprint to the Big Ten Championship so make sure you come here every Thursday for all the Madness.
Programming note: I will be moving The Big 3 to it’s own mini-article on Mondays or Tuesdays. I want to free up a little space in this article to dive deeper into the Weekend Wagers and preview some of these huge Saturday slates and check back at the beginning of the week to see The Big 3 articles that will bounce around about topics from those same slates.
The Iso
Time to clear out and go 1 on 1 on this week’s Isolated Team.
Today, I am sending the screen away to go head to head with the Ohio State Buckeyes.
Chris Holtmann’s team is sitting here at 12-2 and they are not easy to figure out.
Ohio State just had a thrilling overtime win against West Virginia last Saturday at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse in Cleveland.
Roddy Gayle was a superstar with 32 points along with the superstar shot attempts going 11/21 for the game. Jamison Battle continued to blend right in Scarlet and Gray with his eighth straight double figure game with 17 points on 5 made threes. The Buckeyes settled into an identity of Bruce Thornton running the show, Battle and Gayle scoring, and Evan Mahaffey and Felix Okpara doing the dirty work defensively and on the glass. Still, it took Ohio State overtime (after multiple blown leads) to put away a 5-7 West Virginia team.
At times, OSU has looked like a team that should be ranked. Other times, they give up 83 points to a lowly Penn State team in a loss.
So as we approached last night’s game versus Rutgers, we still don’t know who Ohio State is. We left the Rutgers game still not knowing.
Ohio State jumped out to an early lead against the Scarlet Knights and built it up to be 12 points by halftime. The Buckeyes had shown with their ball movement, shooting and defense what kind of team they can be before they stalled in the second half. Rutgers didn’t want to die and Ohio State wouldn’t put them away. Steve Pikiell’s team even cut it all the way down to 1 point at 66-67 with 3:20 left to go.
The Buckeyes held onto the win, but that’s not the point. Ohio State was inconsistent, again. The second half play didn’t match the first. Gayle followed up his 30 point performance with a 4-15 effort. It was another victory but it was another inferior team that they let hang around instead of stepping on their throats.
The inconsistency of the lead guards, inconsistency of the defense, and the inability to play dominant basketball for 40 minutes frustrates the fans. Often you get caught shouting “Can the real Ohio State please stand up?!” like you are Marshall Mathers in 2000.
Ohio State has the ceiling (23rd offense/ 55th defense on KenPom) to be a Sweet 16 team and maybe even sneak into a Final Four. Clearly the Buckeyes also have the floor to lose to bad teams. That variability is something OSU fans are too familiar with in the Holtmann era.
Whether it’s the loss to Oral Roberts as a 2 seed, the regular season irregularity leading to most seasons ending with 10 losses or just that Holtmann hasn’t taken them to a Sweet 16 yet, fans are frustrated.
The potential has been there – and for a Football heavy fanbase that is used to results-or-nothing mentality- not reaching that potential is unacceptable.
Unlike Football, growing pains are more visible in Basketball as you don’t have Freshman doing endless reps while sitting behind 30+ upperclassmen. Ohio State fans have watched Bruce Thornton and Roddy Gayle make every mistake in real games as Holtmann brings them along.
College Basketball teams don’t need to be finished products in January. What every Ohio State fan is waiting to see is whether or not the Buckeyes will become a finished product. If so, can they can stay that way?
Ohio State fans don’t need a National Championship in Basketball… but can we see a team make a Sweet 16? Can this team consistent basketball? Buckeye fans are dying to see a team win a few games against good teams and lose a hard fought game to a much better team.
I wrote about in my Michigan ISO how their inconsistency is because they are just a fine team and not a good team. For OSU, they are a good team. The Buckeyes inconsistencies are that sometimes they teeter on being a great team and other times they fall asleep and open themselves up to bad losses.
Can Coach Holtmann get Ohio State to a place where they aren’t bleeding leads? Can OSU lean more towards being great instead of being vulnerable?
Ohio State will make the tournament this year. Roddy Gayle and Bruce Thornton have made leaps. The transfer class is a hit. The freshman class…. well, it’s still early. Holtmann will have an opportunity to compete in March again.
Now, like so many college fans Ohio State fans will just have to wait on pins and needles to see how long they keep it all together or if they fall apart early in March.
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: Stanford Freshmen, Marcus Domask, Sean Jones, Isaiah Stevens
One of the Wait, What? Upsets of the past week or so was Stanford upsetting no. 4 Arizona 100-82 on New Year’s Eve. The Cardinal pulled off the surprise in major part because of their two highly ranked freshmen Kanaan Carlyle (28 points, 6-8 3pt) and Andrej Stojakovic (16pts). If Stanford has any chance of pulling it together and making March Madness, they will need these Four-star Freshman to continue being Diaper Dandies.
No Terrence Shannon Jr. No Problem. Marcus Domask stepped right in and scored 32 in a dominant 30 point victory over Northwestern. It is the Illini’s second 30 point performance of the season. He followed up his 30-point FAU performance with a 6 point clunker against Tennessee. Will he repeat the Boom-Bust against Purdue on Friday?
Sean Jones brought some energy for Marquette this past Saturday with 15 points, 2 steals, 3 threes all in 13 minutes. His boost off the bench helped propel the Golden Eagles past Creighton after the Bluejays jumped out to an early lead. Marquette is pretty stacked, but they’ve at times needed a kick off the bench like Jones provided.
One guy I haven’t talked enough about this season is Isaiah Stevens of Colorado State. The Rams are all the way up to 13th in the AP Poll with his play being the driving force. Stevens had 18 points, 8 assists and 3 steals in a win over a very good New Mexico team in the Mountain West opener. Oh by the way, those are basically Stevens’ averages for the season. Remember the name come March.
Bad Game: Julian Reese but really all of Maryland’s offense, Northwestern’s Defense
Purdue gave Maryland a night to forget on Tuesday with a 67-53 loss for the Terps in the Xfinity Center. Julian Reese had the Zach Edey experience scoring 0 points on 0-4 shooting with 4 personal fouls while the NPOY had 23 points and 12 rebounds. In general, Maryland’s offense minus Jahmir Young only put up 27 total points going 3-16 (18.75%) from three and 9-40 (22.5%) from the field overall. The Terps offense has been lacking any claws and the Purdue loss continued a disappointing season for Kevin Willard’s unit.
So, last year Northwestern hung their hat on defense. The Wildcats cannot claim the same this year after giving up 96 points to Illinois without the Illini’s best player active. Northwestern is now the 66th best defense on KenPom compared to the 22nd best one they had last season. Their offense isn’t saving them either at 73 overall. Coach Collins needs for the Cats to take a leap on defense if they want to make the tournament again.
Weekend Wagers
I preview the biggest games in the weekend slate and give my moneyline picks. For picks ATS follow us on X.
no.9 Illinois at no.1 Purdue
- The biggest game of the weekend is in the Big Ten
- Illinois is 3-5 vs the Boilers since Brad Underwood took over.
- The Illini haven’t beat Purdue since January of 2021.
- Illinois is coming off a thrashing of Northwestern in its first Big Ten game without Terrence Shannon Jr.
- Purdue needs to gain ground in the standings after their loss to Northwestern. Another loss would put them two games back from Illinois.
- Marcus Domask had his second 30 point game of the season in the win against the Cats. Can he keep it up and be the guy with TSJ gone?
- Purdue will want to slow the pace and make Illinois play in the halfcourt as much as possible.
- How does Illinois guard Edey? Last year Dain Dainja played heavy minutes and they sent doubles.
- Purdue proceeded to burn them from deep off those doubles. Do you hope Purdue has a cold shooting night at the State Farm center?
- I don’t think Illinois has enough to win but home courts in the Big Ten are special. I would feel comfortable with Purdue ML but be afraid of any spread.
no.8 UNC at no.16 Clemson
- This is a huge opportunity for a Clemson team who (despite its high ranking) could use a signature win.
- It is a meeting between the 2nd and 3rd favorites to win the ACC (UNC +270, Clemson +390)
- PJ Hall vs Armando Bacot will be a lot of fun. Can Hall with his shooting drag Bacot out of rebounding position?
- Joe Girard vs RJ Davis is not a half bad backcourt matchup either.
- Both teams will meet again in February but this matchup has to be Clemson’s if they want to win the ACC title.
- Clemson has the offense to run with North Carolina. It might come down to can the Tigers get a few big stops to secure the W.
- I think the over will be the play in this. If it is under 150 I would take it. This game feels like a 75+ pointer for each team.
no.23 Providence at Creighton
- Creighton made my 22 Teams that Matter list the same week that they got knocked out of the Top 25.
- Providence didn’t even make the Cut for Time list.
- Reminder the AP Poll rewards teams with easier stretches and often punishes teams unnecessarily for losing to better teams.
- Still, everyone can see Creighton’s talent but it is time that they actually beat a good team.
- This game is in Omaha and the Bluejays have got to make up ground with their 2 early Big East losses.
- Providence has won with a flurry of guard and wing centric scoring.
- Can Ryan Kalkbrenner enforce his will against the smaller Josh Oduro?
- Providence’s big wins have all come at home. Can they take that next step as a competitor and knock off good teams on the road?
- The loss at home to Seton Hall this week will add some extra fire for the Friars to win this one.
- Just like last year’s slide, I will continue to pick Creighton no matter the harm it causes me.
no.22 Ole Miss at no. 5 Tennessee
- It really doesn’t get much better than Chris Beard vs. Rick Barnes
- Ole Miss finally begins SEC play after an undefeated walk in the park in non-conference. Their reward? Playing no.5 Vols team and the SEC favorites.
- I think the Vols will boatrace the Rebels. I’d be comfortable taking any spread in the single digits.
- I expect the Tennessee defense to absolutely strangle Ole Miss’s offense. An Under would be exciting if it weren’t for how low the Ole Miss defense is ranked.
- This is Ole Miss’s prove it game. I just think they will prove a message they don’t want to prove.
Award Winning Wings
A rotating selection of made up superlatives and awards. Named fondly after how every restaurant has ‘award winning wings’
The Wait, What? Upset of the Week
We had a couple candidates this past week, but since I already talked about Stanford knocking off Arizona, let’s hit Florida Atlantic losing to Florida Gulf Coast.
The 7th ranked owls lost the dogfight to the Eagles 72-68 despite outrebounding them by 12 and pulling in 17(!) offensive rebounds. FGCU was missing a couple players and everyone played for FAU. Nobody got hurt or had serious foul trouble for the Owls, they just lost.
It’s FAU’s second Wait, What? loss joining the Bryant loss earlier in the year. Just something to think about when picking upsets after Selection Sunday.
AJ Storr Dunk Appreciation Award
Listen, Wisconsin Basketball is nice and all, but sometimes you need that extra little oomph to beat good teams.
AJ Storr is the kind of athlete the Badgers don’t usually have…
but wait there’s more!
Wisconsin fans will not get sick of seeing dunks like these… partially because they hardly ever see them!
Storr brings that extra layer of attack for defenses to fear and undoubtedly Wisconsin plays their best basketball when Storr is playing his.
A 2nd Home just 6,000 miles away
Keisei Tominaga has been one of the Big Ten’s best players the past two seasons. His parents have had to watch almost all of his games from 6,000 miles away and 15 hours ahead of Central Standard Time.
That wasn’t the case when his parents made the oddyssey to see him in Pinnacle Bank Arena yesterday. And Keisei showed out for his family:
Keisei put up 28 points with 4 threes and 9-15 from the field in Nebraska’s first win against Indiana in over 5 years. Rienk Mast returned to action and his family was in attendance too for the suddenly international hub of Lincoln.
So, shoutout to the special family night for Nebraska.
Ethan Morton Three Point Tracker
The Ethan Morton Tracker just keeps taking a nosedive. Morton is now 2-9 from distance (22%), 2-5 from the free throw line (40%), and 1-6 inside the arc (16.7%). Woof. The good news? The volume is so low if he hits his next three threes he will be back to 40%.
Did Louisville win a game this week?
Louisville did not win a game since we last checked in on them. The Cardinals were blown out by Virginia last night and rival Kentucky before that.
When people asked the Louisville athletic department about the rumors of firing Kenny Payne after the UK loss, they… declared… BANKRUPTCY!
If the AD really doesn’t have money to pay a buyout, it looks like the Louisville checkin is here to stay.
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.
Don’t look now, but it seems like the committee has snuck Nebraska up to the 2nd line at no.6. The Hoosiers fell behind the Huskers, Maryland moved down… other than that committee didn’t move much over the Winter break.
Anyways, that’ll do it for this week’s Midweek Madness. We will be back next week with an ISO on a school and state who has a close tie to corn. Happy New Year!