PC and How6rd's CBB Corner: Week 11

The middle part of conference play is always wild. Teams winning and losing almost every day of the week. Top 25 teams losing to unranked opponents. Some teams have continued to rise, and some have fallen. The middle of the year is treacherous, and The Dudes have the latest weekly update.

PC’S CBB Corner

Risers this week: We had a lot of good teams get some very solid wins and have avoided the mayhem for at least this week. One of the biggest risers is North Carolina. They’ve jumped all the way to 3 in the Top 25. Their All-American candidate RJ Davis who is no stranger to us, is on a warpath. Without Caleb Love, RJ has been able to control this Tar Heels team. Armando Bacot continues to be a solid number 2 option. Harrison Ingram has stepped up huge for Hubert Davis’s squad. He’s been rebounding the ball exceptionally well and has been hitting for nearly 40% clip from 3. The Tar Heels are on top of a weaker ACC, but still has all the tools to win a title. The Kentucky Wildcats may have the best roster in the entire NCAA. Big Z was just recently approved to play earlier this week. He was lights out for their game against Georgia. The big man looked like a mini Joker out their for the Wildcats. Antonio Reeves is the starting guard, but their other two freshmen that come off the bench are the most talented freshmen guards in the country. Reed Sheppard bigs a type of game that makes everyone better. He’s great in the lane and spreading the ball out to open shooters. He makes plays for himself too, as you don’t want to leave him open from three. Rob Dillingham is the most impressive out of them all. I like to think of him as just a straight hooper. He gives you electrifying handles and deep threes that just have a magic to them. When he gets hot, he doesn’t miss. Calipari was on the hot seat this last year. However, this squad now looks like a legit title contender. I know my boy How6rd will discuss UCONN so I’m not going to spend hardly any time on them but they are the true #1 team in the nation right now. They’ve been proving it in a highly competitive Big East this year. They picked up another win against Villanova and it just seems like another Final Four run for the Huskies.

Falling Down: I am going to have a whole section of Kansas below so we can just skip it for now, but the loss to West Virginia should be at least a seed drop. Terrible loss even though it was on the road. Baylor has had two big losses in tough away game environments. First, the loss to K-State on a go-ahead three by Arthur Kaluma in OT. The Bears just seemed off this game and the Wildcats were rocking that game. Then, they went down to Longhorn country and again, lost on a last second shot. Jalen Bridges made a huge 3 to tie the game with just a few seconds remaining. Texas got the ball to Tyrese Hunter and he blitzed down the lane to beat the Bears by a last second shot. The defensive rebounding of Baylor really hurt them, and They need Love and Bridges to be more consistent if they want to have a shot at a Big 12 title. Other notable losses around the Big 12 include Iowa State blowing out BYU in a one sided game. TCU lost a tough one on the road to Cincinnati.,All these ranked teams in the Big 12 need to learn how to separate themselves from the mid tier teams. If they don’t, beating up on each other may hurt them in the end rather than help. Texas A&M lost to a really struggling Arkansas team. Texas A&M seemed like they were getting back on track, but took another ugly loss. Wisconsin lost to a rather poor Penn State team, which was quite a shocker. They took a little tumble down the rankings, but had a nice win on Monday to boost them up again. These teams have had minor hiccups. You just don’t want the minor hiccup to turn into a meltdown.

Kansas Section from a fan: 

Dear Kansas Basketball,

Can we not turn the ball over so many times that we get a Quad 3 loss from a team that hired a coach in mid August? Can we play like the team we are supposed to? Kevin McCullar, you play well. You’re the veteran, the next guy to fill that role. However, when it comes to the big shot, you always come up short. I can’t count how many times I’ve screamed at my tv because you took the shot. Get better please, we need you to play better. Dajuan, you are still one of the best point guards in the league. However, you’ve been turning the ball over and haven’t been a threat on offense. When you score, we win. So, push your offense and attack. Hunter, big fella. You have played well, but you’ve been average this past week. We don’t need average, we need Big 10 player of the year Hunter Dickenson. Please do better. KJ, we need you to be more of a threat. Sure, you make one good play. However, we need more than that. We need you crashing the glass all the time. Furphy, keep shooting. You could be the x factor this team needs. Look, were still good. We’re going to make the tournament and do decently. If these changes are not made, we may lose in the Sweet Sixteen again. Take care of the ball, rebound on defense, and be more assertive on offense, we will be fine. Just don’t let me down again with a terrible loss like that.

Sincerely,

A Loyal yet Extremely Spoiled yet Die Hard Kansas Fan

How6rd’s Big East/Mid-Major Roundup

UConn playing like the nation’s true #1-  Now I know that this statement has been said about many teams this season but when at their best this team is VERY well-rounded and can at least cause teams to work at their best if they want to beat the Huskies. They were one of the two top-10 teams that survived what was “hell week” for ranked teams around the country and that alone puts them in some elite conversations. This past week they further proved their number 1 AP ranking with the first game being a complete decimation to the Creighton Blue Jays in Donovan Clingan’s first game back from injury. The Huskies had a much closer game in the second game of the week against Villanova in a close victory, but the interesting fact is they actually shot way better in the second game from the field and still didn’t have all that good of shooting performance. It’s very confusing looking at it from a statistical viewpoint, but from watching both of these games the commonality was watching the defense come up in huge moments of the game. Whether it’s turning the tide of momentum completely in their favor or creating a huge turnover in the crucial minutes of the game this defense can come up huge if shots aren’t falling. If UConn can keep up this defensive grit on top of making shots like they have in weeks prior it’s gonna be a long night for any Big East team having to go against them in the weeks to come.

Is St. Mary’s back to being a true mid-major threat?-  After a good portion of college basketball media had selected the Gaels to take the WCC crown from Gonzaga and potentially be a Final Four sleeper, St. Mary’s was very shaky to start the year losing five of their first seven games against D1 competition. A couple of those five losses weren’t even close either as they nearly got beat by 20+ points in back-to-back games, and by then the country had already written the Gaels off as anything exciting, but then January came. St. Mary’s hasn’t lost since right before Christmas Eve including being undefeated in conference play so far, and besides Loyola Marymount they’ve destroyed conference opponents backed by some spectacular guard play from Aidan Mahaney and Augustas Marciulionis. I predicted in my conference champ predictions earlier that Mahaney would become a top shooter in the country to lead the Gaels far, but after putting up just under six points per game off the bench the third-year team assist leader in Maciulionis is the perfect player for either passing to the best scoring opportunity or making baskets himself when the team is in a slump. Mitchell Saxen is the big man that rounds this team’s top players out getting a solid amount of boards and being a skyscraper near the basket on defense. Randy Bennett looks to have another solid two-way squad being as dangerous from the field on offense as they are taking the ball away and forcing missed shots on defense. If this chemistry holds up after seeing the difference it has made in just a month for St. Mary’s who knows how high their ceiling for this season really is especially on a down year for Gonzaga.

New Mexico has joined the race for the Mountain West crown-  At this point I feel like I need to add the Mountain West alongside the Big East for conferences with a spotlight in these takes, because this conference seems to have a new team that impresses me most. This week we focus on New Mexico as the Lobos have an incredible offensive lineup as they can get a bucket from just about anybody, which is something that created their big demise last season after their hot start in 2022. The Lobos are very much a true threat to the conference this season with a trio including the recognizable duo of Jamal Mashburn Jr. and Jaelen House, who have been this team’s two best stars for the last three years, and a new face in Donovan Dent who has had a huge sophomore breakout season averaging 14.8 points, 6.2 assists, and 1.6 steals per game along with getting 5 blocks in his last three games (he’s 6’2). That big three for the team has done more than enough damage, but if that wasn’t enough to convince you their freshman forward in JT Toppin (no relation to the other Toppin’s) has been one of my favorite freshmen to watch in the country because he’s as scary in the post on offense as he did from anywhere on the court on defense blocking as many shots as he grabs steals with how fast he is on his feet for someone that’s 6’9. The other role players have carried the team on some bad nights as well just further proving the stacked squad the Lobos have on their hands. After taking down San Diego State and Utah State convincingly in back-to-back games this team is the real threat along the west side of the country this season and most likely a nightmare come time for the NCAA tournament.