CBB Corner: Week 13

Dude…

As February continues to push these programs towards March Madness, the Madness has already begun. An extremely eventful weekend has now passed as 3 top 10 teams fell to other top 10 teams. Then, another top 10 team fell yet again to a non-ranked team. The wild weeks until the conference tournaments. The Dudes have the latest scoop on the week 13 CBB season.

South Carolina is a top 3 team in the SEC: What a week for the Gamecocks!! South Carolina has won 5 straight. First, a win over Kentucky who had been rolling through the SEC. Then, a quick dub against Mizzou who is in a transition year. Then, the biggest win was going on the road and defeating #5 Tennessee on the road. The Volunteers were dialed in all season and this win moved the Gamecocks into consideration for the top spot in the SEC. The Gamecocks continued their road trip with a win in Athens over a stingy Georgia. Finally, they came back home to defeat Chris Beard’s Ole Miss team. Meechie Johnson is slowly becoming a dark horse in the SEC Player of the Year candidate with just under 15 points a game. B.J Mack has been a force to be reckoned with 14 points and 5 rebounds. The Cocks have made their presents known in the SEC, can they continue to shock the system by continuing to win, or will they crack under the pressure. They play Vanderbilt next, but they will travel to Montgomery to take on Bruce Pearl’s Auburn team.

Kansas rolls Houston, only to lose on the road yet again: Kansas has been a wishy washy team this year. Sure, they’re still a top 2 team in the Big 12, but they had taken a massive hit on the road with losses to West Virginia and UCF. The Cougars out of Houston have been a huge threat in the Big 12 in their first year. Kelvin Sampson has his Cougars squad hungry for a Big 12 title. Their biggest obstacle is Phog Allen. Kansas demonstrated why Allen Fieldhouse is the toughest place to come out with a win in. Kansas steamrolled Houston by 13 with a 78-65 win. Johnny Furphy had a coming out moment with 17 points and went 6-7 from the floor and 3-4 from deep. The Jayhawks have always struggled to get outside scoring under Bill Self, but Furphy is stepping up to demonstrate that he can be that guy for them to complete their team. However, it doesn’t matter if you can win in the Phog, because guess what, THE NCAA TOURNAMENT ISN’T IN THE PHOG!! Woah I know, mind blown. The Jayhawks cannot win on the road. They have lost 4 of their last 5 road games. Including their recent loss to their little brother in Manhattan in K-State. I understand the struggles from Furphy. K-State was rockin 'and that’s another tough road environment to shoot in. However, everyone else that is supposed to be experienced, has no excuse. Kevin McCullar, buddy, you need to be better. We can’t have you continue to not show up. We need you to make that jump. Juan, my guy, shoot the damn ball. Simple. Or at least look to shoot. KJ you gotta be more assertive with the ball. You don’t get a lot of looks, but you are efficient so getting you the ball at the free throw line should be more of a priority. Like I normally say, KU will be fine. However, they need to figure this out and get more contributions off the bench. If they don’t, it may be a short trip in the tournament.

Tennessee wins without a dominant Knecht game: Yes, we took a stupid L at home against South Carolina. However, the Gamecocks have been rolling lately so this game against Kentucky is massive. The Volunteers shot the lights out. Tennessee beats Kentucky 103-92 in a shootout. Now Dalton Knecht has been the offensive machine, didn’t have an outstanding night. Yes he had 16 points, but he went 5-14 from the field and didn’t carry the offensive load. Now, the rest of the team stepped up. Zakai Zigler has been waiting to have an impact game for this, he had 26 points and was facilitating and dropping dimes as well. Josiah Jordan-James came on as well and had 26 points as well. So, Dalton Knecht had a bad shooting night, the Volunteers proved that he didn’t need to do everything. He has more than capable teammates to help carry the load. The Volunteers had always been a threat to win the SEC. They have continued to prove that they are more than just a one trick pony.

ACC runs through UNC- One of if not the biggest rivalries in all of college athletics went to the Dean Smith Center as North Carolina faced Duke. Duke has looked like an ACC winner throughout this entire year. Kyle FIllipowski has been awesome. Tyrese Proctor and Caleb Foster have stepped up in big ways to help out the Blue Devils. North Carolina has been talked about in the same fashion. RJ Davis has been the ACC Player of the Year front runner throughout the season. Armando Bacot and Harrison Ingram have been those incredible supporting roles that have been vital to UNC’s success. The clash was an absolute classic. UNC had things rolling and then the Blue Devils got things rolling right after. Armando Bacot was the factor in the deciding 93-84 score victory. Bacot handled the victory with 26 points and 10 rebounds. UNC has taken game one of this rivalry and still has to go to Cameron Indoor to win the conference. However, a big loss to Clemson has put a dent in the ACC run through UNC title, but I believe this is the most complete team in the ACC and they have continued to prove that even with the losses.

How6rd’s Big East/Mountain West/Mid-Major Roundup

Butler enters back into Big East dark horse talks-  The run the Butler Bulldogs had out of conference earlier this season was fairly impressive and made them look like another threat in this competitive conference under Thad Matta. Meanwhile, their start of Big East play losing five of their first seven games in conference made all that hype go away and seemed to have put them out of any consideration for the NCAA tournament. Well… it put them out of tournament talks until now as they haven’t lost their last four games and their most recent one was by far the most impressive beating a 13th ranked Creighton team on the road. Aside from Creighton taking a 10-point lead late in the first half this game was close almost the entire time and both teams were hardly slacking in shooting over 50% from the field the whole game. The biggest differences in this one were the turnovers and missed three-point attempts from Creighton in the end, as Butler were hardly wasting any opportunities when given one and gave them the most leverage in the final minutes of the matchup. The Bulldogs fought hard and looked really good in a game where they would’ve gotten smoked playing like they did a full month ago. The upcoming two weeks for Butler will easily be their toughest tasks yet as a positive record going through UConn, Providence (not great currently but isn’t a cakewalk), Marquette, and a rematch against Creighton then that’d be huge for their at-large chances to make March Madness in the long run.

Move over Hoosiers, it’s the Sycamores’ state now-  Now I’m sure if you’ve been following college basketball through social media this year you’ve had to of seen the goggles-wearing Robbie Avila going off in his games. On the other hand, the team he’s on is quite possibly the hottest team outside of the Power 6 conferences at the current moment which are the Indiana State Sycamores. Indiana State has one of the best offenses in the country in terms of efficiency and outscoring their opponents along with surely having the best three-point shooting overall. Four of their five players in the starting lineup shoot better than 40% behind the three-point line and they’re led by one of those guys in Avila who’s the team's big man. The Sycamores are looking like the clear favorites to win the Missouri Valley Conference right now and after a huge victory nearly by double digits, this team is looking like a sure shot at being an upset choice if they win their conference tournament.

Weekly Mountain West Chaos-  Notice how I inserted the Mountain West into the title of my section? Well it shouldn’t be a shock considering how damn good this conference is that it really deserves it’s weekly coverage at this point. First discussion is about San Diego State who had a roller coaster of the week after losing to Colorado State on Tuesday and then destroying the Utah State Aggies in a shocking losing performance showed by the 17th-ranked team. Then a sensational performance came from Max Rice in Boise State’s road victory against 19th-ranked New Mexico as Rice shot 12-20 from the field and 7-14 from three (including an airball believe it or not). Donovan Dent also looked spectacular for New Mexico with a 31 point performance keeping the Lobos in the game until they spiraled out of control late in the second half. Finally, we wrap up the chaos in this conference with Colorado State who just a week ago looked like they were on their last limb for being put in the “best team” conversations of this conference before dominating both San Diego State and Fresno State, which was night and day difference from the performance in the Wyoming upset, and now with these bounceback wins along with having only five losses with a 35th-ranked schedule right now it’s no question that we may see these guys along with four other Mountain West Schools in March.