CBB Corner: Week 14

Dude…

The fight towards March is in full swing! As the conference play continues to shorten and we can see the Conference Championships around the corner. It’s almost imperative that you finish the season strong. Doing so will help you keep that positive momentum going in the tournaments. If you lose, you may have the opposite effect than the other teams. Some big names continue to be outshined and others are finally getting the flowers they deserve. The Dudes have the latest reactions from this week's contest.

PC’s CBB Corner:

Wisconsin loses 4 straight: The Wisconsin Badgers looked like they were set up to make another astonishing final four run that led them to the championship game in 2015. That hasn’t looked like the case recently. The Badgers have now dropped 4 straight. First, the loss away against Nebraska. Nebraska has been a bubble team for the NCAA Tournament this year. However, they beat Wisconsin convincingly 80-72. Then, they invited the Boilermakers into Wisconsin. Zach Edey and Brandon Smith put on a clinic and bullied the Badgers all night. Purdue ended up defeating Wisconsin 75-69. Then, they went to Michigan. Normally, this would be a challenge against a highly decorated program. Juwan Howard has a god awful team that is currently last in the Big 10. No one expected the boys in red to lose this one. They did. Holding an L thanks to major rebounding issues. Wisconsin lost 72-68. Surely the slide would end there. Nope. The Badgers coughed another loss to an ok team in Rutgers in an absolute blowout. Rutgers was hot and didn’t stop being hot. The Scarlet Knights dismantled this team. They won 78-56 in a 22 point beat down. Now, the Badgers have a chance to get back on track with a game against Ohio State on Tuesday. I am writing this before the game, so I have no idea if they will break the losing streak. One thing is for certain, the Badgers need to figure it out before they see their impressive season fall right out the window.

Kansas won’t win the Big 12: I think it’s officially over for KU to become the Big 12 Champions. It’s just not in the cards this year. You can’t win with 4 players. Scratch that, maybe 2 decent players, one ogre in the middle who doesn’t do anything, and a player that is incredible when he’s doing anything, but shooting the basketball. KJ and McCullar have been playing decent. KJ had a horrific game this last Big Monday at Texas Tech, but has been one of the most efficient players in college hoops all season. McCullar was supposed to be the guy for the Jayhawks. This has been the case, but he hasn’t made that jump Ochai Agbaji or Jalen Wilson made the past two seasons. I have always wondered why Hunter Dickinson got so much hype. Yes, he’s been a 3x All Big 10 Selections, but let’s look at how his teams did in those three years. He had a terrific year his first year, but he had some help with Nunez and others to lead that team to an Elite Eight. Once Dickinson became the man, the team fell apart. Those last two seasons, the Wolverines didn’t even make the tournament. Now, he’s on Kansas and something is bound to change? It’s proving in the pudding that it is not. I’m a massive fan of Dujuan Harris. Always have been, always will. However, we cannot have someone on the floor who isn’t a threat to score. It’s just that simple. We’re playing 4 on 5 every time he’s on the floor. You gotta shoot the rock or else, what are you really doing? The Jayhawks have no outside shooting. They play like crap when they’re not in The Phog (news flash, the NCAA Tournament isn’t in Allen Fieldhouse). This team finds themselves 7-5 in conference after the beatdown that was given to them by the Red Raiders on Tuesday night. This puts them 5th in the Big 12 and will need a lot of help to be able to become the Big 12 champs this year.

Zags get a tournament bid saving win over Big Blue: The Gonzaga Bulldogs looked like they were going to miss the tournament for the first time in over 20 years. The Drew Timme Era is over, and Mark Few tried to reload. He had some great talent in Graham Ike and Ryan Nembhard. It just hasn’t panned out like Few had hoped. They lost to Santa Clara, San Diego State, and St. Mary’s just to list a few. They haven’t capitalized on quad one opportunities by losing to Purdue and UCONN. They desperately needed this win over Kentucky to help their resume for an automatic bid. They did just that. The Bulldogs went into Rupp Arena and won against their first Quad 1 opponent. Anton Watson and Graham Ike stepped up big for the Bulldogs for this upset win. Kentucky has now lost 3 straight at home, bringing back the questions of Calipari’s coaching style they had last year. A top 5 draft prospect in Rob Dillngham, only played 18 minutes. He didn’t have a shot attempt in THE SECOND HALF!! How can one of your best players not play at least 20 minutes? I know you have so much talent, but you cannot have your best shooter not make a field goal in the second half. You just can’t have it. The Bulldogs have to win out to make the tournament as an automatic bid. If they slip up once, Few will miss the tournament for the first time in a long time.

Who is the top team in the SEC?: So, the Big 12 is the best league. I know this for a fact. However, the SEC is giving them a run for their money. This league is jam packed at the top of the table. With around 5 games to go, which team will end up on top. The roaring favorite to win is Tennessee. Dalton Knecht has been the SEC transfer player of the year. No question. The Volunteers have been good, but have had some seriously off shooting nights. I mean, they scored 103 points against Kentucky, but only put 69 points in a loss to Texas A&M. Are they consistent enough to win it all? You’ve got the talented, maybe too talented Kentucky team. They have talent all over the floor, but mostly at the guard position. Antonio Reeves, Reed Sheppard, and Rob Dillingham have been this team's biggest bright spots. There’s so much talent on the floor, that sometimes it seems like they don’t know who to give the ball to. Do they throw it down low to Big Z? Let Rob create with the ball in his hands? Or allow Reed Sheppard to set up a good shot? This seems like the biggest downfall to a loaded Big Blue team that may cost them a conference title. The Alabama Crimson Tide have turned it around in SEC play going 8-2. However, they were dismantled by rival Auburn last week. Auburn could be the right answer, but continues to be hot then cold.

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

Kolek and Marquette are Rolling-  When Marquette began their run of the Big East gauntlet that started in late December things were looking downhill for them giving up a couple of losses where they shot themselves in the foot. Fast forward to the present and they’re one of the nations hottest teams with easily the best player from this past week in Tyler Kolek. The star college veteran guard has been a machine since the month of February started and this past week he put on two performances that looked better than the majority of his performances in January combined. After a very cold shooting month in January, Kolek has scored 27 points in back to back games including a double-double in his Saturday matchup against St. John’s in which the Golden Eagles dominated SJU in the last five minutes of the game. Their next game against UConn is going to be a battle that will truly show how solid this team is at the moment, but for right now we can surely say if there’s a team in the Big East who has the best odds at taking the conference crown besides UConn it’s the team in blue and gold.

Is the Mountain West TOO Competitive?-  There have been so many solid teams in this conference already balling out that it’s tough to deny the talent of multiple teams making the tournament easily. Meanwhile, it looks as if Nevada has thrown their name into the hat of the many potential conference winners of the Mountain West after beating Utah State and San Diego State back to back. Their close contest with New Mexico was also very impressive looking as it’s clear that this team is HOT when they’re hot from the field. With Nevada picking up these two wins for their school there’s now another team that could be getting one of many auto bids from this conference, which is good and bad for the Mountain West. After those two wins from the Wolfpack the Mountain West currently has no ranked teams for the first time in a while this season and if more losses to lower teams in the standings continue to occur then resumes could be damaged getting into the late stage of the regular season. The Mountain West I believe is the most talented conference on the West Coast by a landslide, but I also think with them being a “Mid-Major” conference it could be more harm than good with so many good teams. A couple of these teams are looking at single-digit seeding in bracket predictions which means an easier opponent in the tournament, but with so much mix-up between the leader of the conference and standings in general it could lead to huge misseeding in early matchups and take themselves out in usual Mountain West fashion. This year will be the true test of how serious this conference is in the NCAA tournament as they can’t afford to have another year of multiple first-round flops no matter how well SDSU did last year.