Time to reheat the leftovers from Feast Week as I recap my Big 3 takeaways, tell you who had a good game & a bad game, my awards for the week, No Explanation Power Rankings and all the other fixings from a full week of College Basketball.
by Jordan Beckley
Thanksgiving week is an extravaganza of too much.
Too much food and calories on Thanksgiving. Too much shopping on Black Friday. Too much leftovers to get through. Too much basketball to even keep up.
Well, don’t worry I ate all the turkey, skipped all the shopping deals, and watched all the College Hoops to keep you up to date.
Feast Week is magical with it’s constant entertainment value, but also it’s tremendously educational as we think we know teams coming into this week but we get to see who isn’t who we thought they were (Indiana, UConn) and who is way better than their previous evaluations (Oregon, Auburn, Oklahoma).
So, let’s reheat some leftovers from the stuffed week and see what we learned.
Big 3
Three big thoughts from the past week of Basketball.
The Hoosiers need to recalibrate
Nobody had a worse Holiday than the Hoosiers.
Indiana came in with real ambition to compete in the Battle 4 Atlantis. The Hoosiers had a 1st round date with Louisville and were eyeing a 2nd round contest with no.3 Gonzaga.
The Cardinals in year 1 under Pat Kelsey are a work in progress. Louisville were embarrassed at home to Tennessee earlier this year and had only beaten small schools otherwise. However, against Indiana Louisville looked like world beaters. The Cardinals took an early lead and never turned back winning 89-61. Louisville outscored IU 52-32 in the 2nd half, forced the Hoosiers into 23 turnovers, and despite IU’s 22 offensive rebounds outscored the Hoosiers 48 to 20 in the paint.
IU’s starting backcourt of Myles Rice and Kanaan Carlyle combined for 3 points on 13 shots and 7 turnovers to just two assists in the loss. Reserves Trey Galloway, Bryson Tucker, and Luke Goode didn’t offer much support. Sophomore breakout Mackenzie Mgbako largely disappeared and left Malik Reneau to shoulder much of the offense.
Indiana was humiliated and needed a short memory as Gonzaga waited them in the losers bracket after an upset from West Virginia. The Zags didn’t blink against Indiana. Gonzaga used a big run in the 1st half to build a 15 point lead and IU never lowered it below 10 again losing 89-73.
Oumar Ballo sort of got his revenge game dropping 25 points on just 13 shots, but nobody else joined him. Rice and Carlyle flopped again with 12 points on 14 shots (1-7 from 3pt) and just 3 assists. The Hoosiers again got dominated in the paint giving up 46 paint points and were -15 rebounds on the glass.
The 13th ranked Hoosiers had given up nearly 180 points in two games and were at risk of coming in last place in a fairly weak Battle 4 Atlantis field. Mike Woodson made a change heading into their final game versus Providence inserting Trey Galloway to the starting lineup and benching Kanaan Carlyle.
The move worked as Galloway had 18 points, 5 rebounds and 5 assists. Myles Rice struggled again, but Malik Reneau and Mackenzie Mgbako shook off their slumps both scoring 20+ points efficiently. Indiana flipped the script this time scoring 89 points and holding their opponent to 73 points while nearly doubling the Friars points in the paint 38 to 22.
So, what does this mean for Indiana? Are the Louisville and Gonzaga games dangerous signs of what’s to come against high level competition? Maybe. Does benching Carlyle and starting Galloway fix everything? Probably not. If Indiana isn’t going to hit 10 threes a game how do they consistently score in the paint?
There are plenty of questions and moves for Mike Woodson to make. What was supposed to be an encouraging Holiday weekend for Hoosier faithful turned into a haunting one. One thing was made clear is that after the money spent on this roster, IU fans will not be forgiving of Woodson if his choices aren’t the right ones.
The Big Ten and the number of March Madness bids
It’s impossible to boil down the loaded feast week plate of performances into three topics so let’s combine some together here.
The Big Ten lacks elite teams, but it does not lack in good teams. Here are some of the key performances from the week:
- Wisconsin won the Greenbrier Tip-Off with wins over UCF and Pitt
- Michigan won the Fort Myers Tip-Off after blowing out a ranked Xavier team
- Penn State finished as Sunshine Slam Runner-up after a tight loss to Clemson
- Purdue won the Rady Children’s Invitational succeeding Ole Miss and NC State
- Oregon knocked off Alabama, Texas A&M and San Diego State in the Players Era Festival
- Illinois dominated Arkansas in the Thanksgiving Hoops Showcase aka the Ivisic Bowl
By my count here are the only teams who we can reasonably expect to not make the Tournament: USC, Washington and Minnesota.
That means there are 15 teams who will be vying for a March Madness bid. Purdue, Wisconsin, Oregon are Top 15ish teams but also statistically profile worse than that with 90+% of the league capable of upsetting them at home. This all should lead to ridiculous parody even for the Big Ten.
Will 15 teams make March Madness? No, of course not. The number will most likely settle at 9 or 10, but could be as few as 8 and as many as 12.
Will the Big Ten have 7 of those teams be seeded no.7-no.10 range and miss the 2nd weekend prompting calls of them being overrated even if they play to expectation? Yes, bet on it.
Oregon can win the Big Ten
One of the most impressive performances from Feast Week is what new Big Ten member Oregon did in TNT’s new MTE: The Players Era Festival.
Despite the awful name and the incredibly dull crowds, the Ducks showed out against a loaded field. Oregon went 3-0 in Vegas beating Texas A&M, San Diego State (who crushed Creighton and then beat Houston), and beat Top-10 Alabama 83-81 to win the Title and a not fully disclosed amount of NIL!
I was very impressed with Oregon who just before this struggled to put away a blah Oregon State team. The things that struck me the most with the Ducks is their defense and their depth.
Oregon is going to play 9 or so players each game and 7 of those will be 10+ minutes. Seven players scored in double figures during the three game stretch and at any one point TJ Bamba, Jackson Shelstad, Keeshawn Barthelemy, or Nate Bittle were the best option offensively for them.
Coach Altman can really play anyway he wants. Bittle is a bulky bully against smaller defenders, and Supreme Cook and KJ Evans each bring a different flavor down low with no real drop in quality. Shelstad and Barthelemy are smaller streaky scoring guards. TJ Bamba, Jadrian Tracey and Brandon Angel bring plenty of size and shooting if they ever want to go “small” without exposing themselves defensively.
As I watched this team outpace Alabama’s offense and match up with all the athletes on the Tide’s roster stride for stride, it kind of hit me how much of a problem this team could be in the Big Ten. Oregon’s defense is only no.30 on Kenpom right now which is pretty good – not scary good – but it could be against some of these smaller Big Ten teams. I can see Purdue, Wisconsin, Iowa, Nebraska, etc. struggling to run efficient offense against the Ducks’ size and length.
Oregon might have had the most impressive Feast Week in the country outside of Auburn. The Ducks rocketed into the Top 25 at no.12 in the AP Poll on Monday and are up to the 4th best odds to win the Big Ten Championship at 8-to-1. Oregon just beat no. 24, no.22 & no. 10 in this week’s AP Poll and I still think there’s better Basketball to be played by several of their rotational players.
Good Game Bad Game
A recurring segment where I tell you about someone, anyone really who had a good game or a bad game. It will mostly be players, but refs, fans, and coaches will make appearances too.
Good Game
Jeremy Fears’ little brother Jeremiah Fears decommitted from Illinois after Brad Underwood told him there wouldn’t be room for him if he reclassified (and then had room for reclassified 5-star Will Riley). So, Fears went to Oklahoma instead. The young gun had himself a week scoring 20pts vs Providence, 26pts vs Arizona and 10pts vs Louisville as Oklahoma won the Battle 4 Atlantis crown.
John Tonje continues to be excellent for Wisconsin who won the Greenbrier Tip-off with a tough win over Pitt (ranked no.18 this week). Tonje dropped 33pts versus the Panthers and has now hit 8+ Free Throws in 6 of Wisconsin’s 8 games so far.
Speakin of Pittsburgh, Pitt’s reserve forward Zack Austin had 16 points and 5 made threes at Ohio State on Friday including the most important three points of the game:
Illinois met Arkansas in a one-off game in Kansas City in the “Thanksgiving Hoops Showcase” or better known as the Ivisic Bowl as twin brothers Tomislav & Zvonimir Ivisic played against each other for the first time. The Brothers showed out with a combined 34 points, 9 made 3-pointers, 16 rebounds and 9 total steals/blocks. Illinois and Tomislav were better in a wire-to-wire victory for the Illini, but my big winners are Momma & Poppa Ivisic for both their sons showing all the NBA scouts the positional versatility that both 7-footers possess.
Purdue won the Rady Children’s Invitational this past week after beating NC State and Ole Miss on back to back days, but it’s Matt Painter’s adjustment to starting Myles Colvin and Cam Heide since the loss to Marquette that has been the big story. Heide had great games against Marshall and NC State while Myles Colvin’s second half is the reason Purdue beat the Rebels. The two bring the best combination of shooting, defense and rebounding to the table of “the other guys” on the Boilers team. Versus Ole Miss Colvin had 20 points, hit three 3s, played great defense and was at the exact right spot at the right time:
Bad Game
After shooting nearly 100% from the field and being a NPOY candidate Ryan Kalkbrenner came back to Earth since I gave him POTW last Midweek Madness. Creighton went 0-3 with losses to Nebraska, San Diego State and Texas A&M while Kalkbrenner managed just 24 points combined in the three contests and in two of them attempted 5 or fewer shots. He was averaging 25ppg on 11.5 shots a game before that. He’s still impenetrable on defense, but Coach McDermott needs to find a way for the Bluejays’ best player to make more of an impact on offense.
It’s easy to forget that Kansas beat Duke and Jon Scheyer at the beginning of last week 75-72 in a one game showcase. It’s the second game where Duke failed in a close game on one of the final possessions with questionable out of timeout play design. Many people believe Duke is the most talented team in the sport. They won’t win a Title with some of the decision making that Scheyer’s had in these close games.
North Carolina’s frontcourt:
USC’s offense put up 36 points against St. Mary’s. 36 TOTAL POINTS. The Gaels fell one point short of doubling the Trojans up in their 71-36 win. USC went 0-12 from three and 26% overall from the field on 50 shots. Like they only had 10 turnovers and still only mustered 36 points against a non-power conference opponent! However, kudos to the social team for having the balls to post a graphic with that score.
Award Winning Wings
I hand out my awards and superlatives for the week of CBB.
Wait What? Upset of the Week
I mean man who do I pick here? Sub-300 KenPom team Monmouth getting their first victory of the year over Seton Hall? Any of the teams who beat UConn this week? Louisville beating Indiana by 100? A ranked Creighton team getting spanked by Nebraska then San Diego State?
No, I’ll go with the one that was swept under the rug by all the Feast Week festivities when Rutgers lost to Kennesaw State last Sunday. The Scarlet Knights did Ace Bailey a favor and played AT Kennesaw State for him to get a local game for family. Well, it backfired and the Owls had the program’s biggest win ever maybe by upsetting Rutgers’ two lottery picks.
The loss confirms what some of the advanced analytics say about the Scarlet Knights (that they aren’t very that good) and it was doubly hard that Rutgers had a chance on the final possession to tie or take the lead and the Homecoming King Bailey turned the ball over rather unceremoniously.
The Scarlet Knights bounced back in Feast Week with a solid and admirable performance (OT win vs Notre Dame, close losses to Bama and Texas A&M), but this game is an alarming sign we shouldn’t forget.
Player of the Week
I had a debate on whether or not to give this team Player of the Week or Coach of the Week, but I decided that Johni Broome deserved the recognition a little more.
Broome might not be as much of a household name as Mark Sears or RJ Davis and he might not be as great of a prospect as Ace Bailey or Cooper Flagg, but there really isn’t a better College Basketball player than him right now.
The 5th year senior is averaging 20.7ppg, 12.9rpg, 3.3apg & 3.1 bpg while shooting 68% from 2 and 34.6% from 3pt. His Auburn Tigers just won the Maui Invitational beating Iowa State, North Carolina and Memphis in the process and are up to no.2 in the polls.
He is kind of what everyone wants Hunter Dickinson to be and his team is better because of it. Broome should be the favorite for NPOY going forward.
Coach of the Week
I’m going with a coach who didn’t win his MTE, but I was most impressed with West Virginia Head Coach Darian DeVries last week. I mean shoutout to Porter Moser building something out of another tough rebuild in Norman, but I was shocked that the Mountaineers beat Arizona and Gonzaga this week.
The Mountaineers had a long Thanksgiving going into OT against Gonzaga, Louisville and Arizona, but coming up victorious against the two preseason Top 15 opponents. Darian comes from Drake (who are undefeated btw) and brings his All-Missouri Valley son in Tucker DeVries with him. Tucker had 26 points and 6 assists in their win over Arizona, Javon Small was the hero against Gonzaga, and Illinois transfer Amani Hansberry has been pretty darn good in all of their games.
West Virginia was picked to finish near the bottom of the Big 12 and just finished 3rd in the Battle 4 Atlantis. Darian DeVries proved that WVU needs to be taken seriously already in year one.
Oh No, We Suck Again Award
It’s the third straight week where this award has gone to a Big East team and this time it’s going to a team I really did not expect to give this award to this season…
UConn is this week’s Oh No, We Suck Again Award winner after finishing Eighth out of Eight teams at the Maui Invitational as the no.1 seed. The Huskies played zero (0) ranked teams in their three games and lost all three of them.
It started last Monday when UConn lost to Memphis in OT partially due to a controversial over-the-back call and subsequent technical on Dan Hurley. What that doesn’t include is the fact the Tigers were the better team all game and UConn needed a minor miracle to force that OT.
On Tuesday, Dan Hurley made it about himself again after another tough over-the-back no call late in their loss to Colorado. However, the final game for UConn had no controversy as Dayton mauled the no.2 ranked Huskies 85-67.
You know what it looked like? It looked like the reigning National Champs who replaced 4 starters missed those 4 starters.
The backcourt isn’t the same. Hassan Diarra isn’t Tristen Newton. Aidan Mahaney is absolutely not Cam Spencer and got himself benched during this tournament. The frontcourt isn’t the same either without Donovan Clingan. Samson Johnson is a walking foul. Alex Karaban is miscast as a no.1 option.
Then there’s the Dan Hurley of it all. The two national titles and his decision to turn down the Lakers job have not quieted the demons of Hurley and his antics absolutely cost UConn in Hawaii. The Fire and the chip on the shoulder has been a powering force of the past few seasons, but it also has seemed to cause Hurley to forget his limits.
UConn is now ranked no.25 and although that’s below Marquette, I still view the Huskies as favorites in a lackluster Big East. UConn will win plenty of games this year, players will find their roles, but it is eye opening to see the lack of control from one of the sport’s best in a critical moment.
Despite that horrible Maui showing I’m not ready to lower the Huskies’ Championship level ceiling, but I am ready to lower their floor.
The Look Ahead
I take a sneak peak at the biggest upcoming games and give non-legally binding vague suggestions on who I might think could possibly win in an of course non-betting capacity…
Believe it or not Big Ten play starts today with Michigan taking on Wisconsin. The Wolverines are a good basketball team and Dusty May is doing a good job so far… but Michigan hasn’t figured out the hierarchy of who the best players are, the frontcourt is talented but Goldin isn’t clicking yet, and overall they still need to settle on who they are. The Badgers have that all settled plus this game is in the Kohl Center.
Ohio State Maryland is the best Big Ten game on a loaded National slate on Wednesday (clear your calendar for this night). Maryland has maybe the best frontcourt in the Big Ten and is figuring out their guard play. Ohio State is figuring out their frontcourt and has one of the best backcourts in the Big Ten. Can Maryland keep pace with the Buckeyes offensively? Terps & Buckeyes both could use the validation of a win to justify the above average ball they’ve been playing.
Purdue Penn State is quietly an amazing game. It will be fascinating to watch this Purdue team in a true road environment. Can Penn State fans make it feel like a true road game?? Purdue will be favored in this game, but I like the Nittany Lions ability to out score and out rebound the Boilers. Look for an upset here if you really want a profit.
The good ole I-94 Rivalry continues with Marquette hosting Wisconsin this Saturday and it may surprise you to know the Badgers have actually won the past three years. I like Marquette to end that win streak. The Golden Eagles play better defense, have better guard play, and have a better best player than Wisconsin. Unless the Badgers get a ton of foul calls at Marquette or Steven Crowl has a career night, I don’t see Wisconsin winning.
I think it is important to point out anytime Oregon, UCLA or any of these West Coast teams play good games at a reasonable time in the eastern timezone. Getting to see both of them Sunday at 6pm will be a great first look for many Big Ten fans. UCLA plays unbelievable defense (1st in Points Allowed pg) but can’t shoot (311th in made 3pts). See the Big 3 for my Oregon takes. The two split last year’s regular season meetings and the Ducks got the tiebreaker in the PAC-12 tourney. Gimme the Ducks at home.
No Explanation Big Ten 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.
Lots of movement here! Oregon jets up to no.2, Indiana plummets to no.10, Penn State is an upper half team now, Rutgers isn’t, and Washington is no longer out last place team! As always the committee didn’t provide an explanation so sorry if you’re upset about where your team is placed.
Thanks for reading! I will be back very soon with a new December edition of the Super Sixteen and of course back next week to parse through the first few games of the Big Ten season!
Read more on The Floor Slap: